Sleep And Be Killed
by Akatsuki's a bang
Summary: Skylar was a typical 17 year old girl. She was normal. Only normal. Then why had this all happened to her! "Every time I fall asleep in a place I'm not supposed to...I get sent into the Naruto world?" And the only way to get back...is to be killed. Well, apparently it was a good thing, then, that she dropped into the Akatsuki base each time.
1. Prologue

**Rated T mainly for Hidan. There's no stopping that man and his colorful vocabulary. **

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><p><span><strong>Normal POV<strong>

As a kid, she'd seen Freaky Friday. As a tween, she'd read a book about some kid who'd gotten sucked into the world of a video game and had to figure his way out. As a nearly-legal adult…she didn't read books like that, because English teachers didn't assign fun reading material…but that's not the point!

People who got thrown into such crazy situations were unique, pinpoint individuals. They were being bullied and needed an escape; they had a severe amount of family issues and needed a life-changing event to show them the way.

Skylar—as far as she was concerned—was normal.

In a week she would be a high school senior. Her family was (nearly) perfect. She had an older brother who was currently studying to be an engineer at a university a couple hours away. Her father was a risk control manager for a fairly large insurance company, so he was always traveling around the country, looking at cases his company assigned him. Her mother…passed away when she was ten.

It was saddening, but life went on—whether she was ready for it to or not.

So, just to say it again, Skylar thought that her family was nearly perfect—almost completely normal.

Of course, main characters had some kind of superb skill or outstanding feature too—but she seemed unable to fit the bill once again.

So, she reiterates: she was a mere high school senior. She didn't dress fashionably or participate in any sport, club, or after school activity. She minded her own business and had a small, remote group of friends—it was all she desired and all she received. She had no physical features that stood out; she was neither skinny nor fat, nor short or tall.

In every way her life was average, and she was fine with it.

She had no desire to stand out in a crowd, or draw attention to herself. She was content—most of the time—in her own presence. Her only goal in life was to go to a University, figure out what the hell she wanted to do with her life, and get a well paying job.

Of course, at some point a husband and family would be nice too—but at the moment she was still working on getting a solid boyfriend.

And so, once again: she was normal.

Then why, one day, did she become the subject of a—at the time—seemingly regular, fake fortune cookie.

"_The next time you fall asleep in a different place—adventure awaits_," Skylar quoted, frowning at the tiny slip of paper. It was actually quite puzzling, considering that most fortune cookies read something along the lines of "luck awaits next Tuesday".

This one seemed different.

However, it was quickly forgotten, because the carry-out Wonton soup she had gotten was ready and waiting, so she shoved the slip of paper in the pocket of her jeans and then indulged in the soup.

Her father was gone on a business trip, and her brother had recently returned to his dorm to get settled in for the incoming semester, so Skylar was having another dinner alone.

It didn't really bother her too much.

So, she finished her soup, cleaned up, and then occupied herself with watching Criminal Minds for two hours.

Marathons were great.

After Criminal Minds ended, Skylar debated watching some kind of ghost show and then thought against it, because she really liked the idea of sleeping at night.

At ten o'clock she finally retired to her bedroom and changed into her pajamas, being one of those weird teenagers who actually chose to go to bed when she was tired.

Therefore, Skylar turned off the light, climbed under the sheets, and then shut her eyes.

The next morning she awoke at the wonderful time of 10 AM, and slowly slipped out of bed. She spared a glace on her way out of the bedroom at the fortune-slip she had pulled from her meal the day before and abandoned on her dresser, and internally chided herself to throw it out later.

There was no reason to keep it—the little hope she had kept for the fortune to maybe come true had dispersed. Skylar had slept—nothing had happened. It was—as normal—another fake fortune.

Yawning, she padded into the kitchen and fixed herself up some eggs and toast for brunch. Once the meal was done she taxed herself with chores—mainly cleaning the dishes and folding the clothes.

Criminal Minds was having an all day marathon again, so once Skylar had piled up the clean clothes, she hopped onto the couch and laid down, getting comfy. She then turned the volume up, focused her attention, and proceed to watch serial killers murder innocent victims.

* * *

><p>"WHAT THE <em>FUCK<em>."

Eyes snapping open, on instinct Skylar's body shot upright and her heart thrummed in shock. Who _the hell_ was yelling so loud?!

Finally taking in her surrounding, she realized that she was no longer on her couch in the living room of her house, but was instead on a hard, black table. Around her were surprisingly familiar faces—those of the Akatsuki from Naruto—a manga that she'd been reading for a while now—…and they all looked just as shocked as she felt.

"Who the hell is this girl, yeah?" somebody whispered, and Skylar immediately recognized the speech impediment, turning to find the man who it belonged to.

Deidara was standing to her right, Sasori directly beside him. Both were in defensive stances, looking very weary as their eyes trailed her over.

Skylar would've dared said something, but for some reason fear constricted her voice.

Even if fictional, the Akatsuki—while mostly sexy and badass—were still very much evil and also murderers…

"How did she enter the base?" Another voice put in, and Skylar turned to find Kisame whispering to Itachi. The shark-like male had his hand on the hilt of Samehada, his eyes still locked on her despite the fact that he was speaking to his partner. "She just appeared out of nowhere…"

"Well, I'm not sure who the bitch is or how the fuck she got in—!" Hidan said and Skylar once again whipped her head around to find him standing a couple feet away. His eyes flared with anger, but the grin on his face was sadistic. He grabbed the handle of his scythe and swung it in front of him. "—but she ain't gonna be here much longer!"

Suddenly he jumped onto the table and swung his scythe at her. Skylar took in a breath, frozen in fear as the three blades neared her, and then the next thing she knew—she was on her couch.

"Holy shit," she gasped breathlessly. She was sweating and fear still shook through her bones. Instinctively she raised a hand to her chest, expecting to see blood and blades sticking through it.

There was none. No blood. No blades.

No Akatsuki.

She was fine. It…it had been a dream?

Confusion filled her head. That had felt real—well, actually, getting a scythe through her hadn't, surprisingly—but the rest had. The emotion, the details, the faces, the setting…

"Fuck _me_…," Skylar sighed and ran a hand through her hair, trying to calm her heart down.

What a dream. The last time she'd had one like it she'd been ten and it had involved Sonic the Hedgehog. Now she was having dreams about anime characters and evil organizations.

Some things never change, apparently…

Even so, Skylar had never dreamed of Naruto before. She'd been watching the anime and reading the manga since she was in middle school, but never had she experienced a dream pertaining to it or anything like that…

It was strange.

"Well, whatever," she finally mumbled after a couple more minutes of calming her heart and brain down. Skylar then stood and sulked into the bathroom, wanting to wash away the layer of sweat that had stained her skin.

That had certainly been weird, but she doubted anything like it would ever happen again.

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><p><strong>Well hello there! If you've read one of my stories before: welcome back! If you haven't read one of my stories before: thanks for giving it a shot at least lol.<strong>

**Considering this is the first chapter, I don't have too much to say. One thing I will say though is: thanks to everyone who took my poll on which story I should write next. I'm glad so many of you had an opinion. Honestly, this story didn't come in first place, and I still _really _want to write the other one. However, since it's college based and that character (OC) is so unique to the ones I typically do, it's a little bit challenging to plan out, and I don't want to screw anything up, so I'm taking my time thinking the plot over.**

**This story is honestly easier to write at the moment too, because I'm still in High School and understand the perspective of my OC. But yeah, I still plan to write the other one so long as I don't die and have time in the future, but for now I'll be working on this one first.**

**And...I don't have much more to say. Next chapter will be longer, since this is just the prologue, but hopefully some of you decide to stick around for the ride. Thanks!**

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Normal POV**

The Akatsuki.

If you looked up their description in the bingo book, it'd likely say something along the lines of: undetermined number of S-class nuke-nin. Highly dangerous. Wanted dead or alive.

If you looked up their name in a self-made dictionary, the definition would say: a group of nine badass motherfuckers and one pretty lady. Nothing could possibly surprise them—they've seen it all—so don't' try. Also, they kick ass and are gonna rule the world. Suck it.

However, even with all these qualifications under their belts (or cloaks, in this case), they couldn't help but be surprised when one day, during an important meeting they were having, a girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the center of their table.

Yes, in the middle of their regular Tuesday morning, just as Pein was beginning to tell them information pertaining to upcoming missions and additional steps that needed to be taken to obtain their goal, out of thin air a girl appeared an inch over the center of the table.

By the time her body had dropped down the inch to lightly hit the tabletop, the Akatsuki had all jumped up in shock.

Hands in cloaks, grabbing the hilts of their weapons, the Akatsuki stood rigid, ready to defend themselves. However, the girl who had appeared did not move. In fact…

She was asleep?

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Hidan yelled, actually offended. She was just gonna show up unannounced like that and then sleep?! She had just invaded their damn base!

However, she wasn't asleep for much longer because Hidan's yell had woken her, and she shot up. Propped up on her hands, she stared at them in apparent shock while they evaluated her in return.

She looked no older than 18 and had straight brown hair and a brown eye that they could see—considering that the other was covered by the hair that had been thrown into her face when she'd jumped up in shock. She was fairy skinny, and was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

She looked harmless.

She looked like a pedestrian. A _really _lost pedestrian.

"Who the hell _is _she, yeah?" Deidara whispered to Sasori, thoroughly confused, and judging by his partners silence Deidara assumed that the puppet master didn't know either. And not just Sasori, but _none _of them knew.

"How did she enter the base?" Kisame quietly continued, leaning towards Itachi a little. The Uchiha said nothing, his Sharingan locked on the female, ready to intercept any move that she would make.

"She just appeared out of nowhere…"

Literally—nowhere. The Akatsuki were all highly trained ninja, so they would've known if a seal had been enacted in their base—and it hadn't. Plus, they had ways of knowing if anyone was coming near their location, and they hadn't sensed her at all.

"Well," Hidan suddenly spoke up, removing his scythe from his back. He swung it out in front of him, holding it towards the girl threateningly. "I'm not sure who the bitch is or how she got in—but she ain't gonna be here much longer!"

And with that, the Jashinist lunged forward and swung his scythe around, aiming right for the petrified girl. She didn't have a chance to move before the blades ripped into her. Immediately Hidan grinned, loving the feeling of his scythe impaling flesh…but there was no blood. There were no severed halves of a corpse falling to the ground.

There was nothing.

Just as she had appeared, the girl had disappeared.

She was gone.

"Well…shit," Kisame said and lowered his hand from the hilt of Samehada, looking around the room. The other relaxed a little as well, glacing around the dark room as well.

They couldn't sense anybody around. None of their traps or seals were being activated, so she wasn't running away. There was no puff of smoke or a substance indicating a clone or substitution jutsu.

"She a _witch…_," Tobi whispered dramatically, waving his hands in the air ominously. Clicking his tongue agitatedly, across the room Deidara removed his hands from his clay pouches and glared that the masked man.

"She not a damn witch, yeah. Be serious."

"Yes, but in all seriousness—what was that?" Kakuzu added in gruffly, crossing his arms as his eyes scanned over the other members in the room. All of them remained silent, looking around at one another as if to come up with an answer. However, no one had one, and finally after a minute of silence Pein decided to speak up.

"Clearly we're all confused as to what just happened," he said, looking calmly around at his members. "However, I do not sense any chakra signatures besides ours around, which means that for now that the base is secure.

"So, for now I propose that we continue the meeting. When it is over I want you all to scour the base for any sign of intruders or enemy ninja."

"Hai," the Akatsuki immediately chorused, and with Pein having made his decision on the matter, they all sat back down in their seats.

The meeting resumed with a high tension, and when it ended another half hour later, immediately the ten Akatsuki members split off to investigate.

Random girls didn't just pop into a base and then pop right back out without a trace. Such a thing was impossible.

Yet, after searching high and low for a grueling hour, all ten members regrouped empty handed.

There was no girl inside their base. There was no girl with brown hair outside their base. There was no girl with brown hair and brown eyes within 5 _kilometers _of their base!

"What the fuck?!" Hidan said exasperatedly and for once—the other completely agreed with him.

Were they finally losing it?

* * *

><p>They weren't losing it they learned four days later when the girl appeared again. This time she landed on their coffee table, effectively cracking it in half on her tiny drop out of nowhere.<p>

"Shit…," Skylar cursed, rubbing her butt when she hit the ground hardly. She painfully cracked an eye open and glanced around in confusion. Had she fallen off of her couch or wha—?

Oh, nope. The Akatsuki were surrounding her again. And they looked even more pissed than they had when she'd seen them a few days ago.

…for some reason she was beginning to think that she wasn't dreaming at all.

"Hey," a voice suddenly spoke and Skylar turned her head to find Deidara knelt down in front of her, leaning close to her face. His eyebrows were furrowed in what looked like anger and confusion.

"What the fuck are you, yeah?"

Without warning, he then proceeded to reach forward and knock his knuckles against her forehead. Immediately Skylar jumped back a little, looking at him weirdly.

"Is that a rhetorical question, or…?" she finally asked after a minute when the criminals continued to stare at her. At hearing her speak, the Akatsuki shared a look.

Maybe she was real then…

Humming, Kisame unexpectedly stepped past Deidara and reached down, grabbing Skylar's wrist. The teen would've fought back or scrambled away had she not remotely believed at this point that this wasn't a dream.

After all, Deidara had touched her, and that had felt real. Also, they all seemed to remember her—which meant that she had likely actually popped into their base a couple days ago—because dreams usually weren't so crystal clear and memorable.

She knew—she'd taken Psychology.

"Ow ow ow," she hissed as Kisame proceeded to drag her up by her arm. Since he was nearly a solid foot taller than her and clearly much stronger, he lifted her up to the point where she was being dangled a couple inches off the ground.

"Child abuse, child abuse," she chanted quietly to herself, wincing in pain as her shoulder joint started to strain under the weight of the rest of her body.

"I don't believe you're a child if you're able to sneak into an Akatsuki base undetected," Itachi nonchalantly commented. He was standing in front of her, his arm folded into his cloak as he intently looked her over with his Sharingan.

Skylar knew that now wasn't the time to be sarcastic or joking, but since it was her nature she couldn't help it.

"I can't even sneak into my own house. How could I possible manage sneaking into the base of all you highly deadly criminals?"

"We're wondering that as well," Sasori input, staring at her with his unamused hazel eyes. "So, would you care to tell us how?"

"Trust me," Skylar said, clenching her teeth. Her arm was seriously about to dislocate soon. "If I knew I'd tell you. But I don't, so—hey, do you think you could put me down please? My arm's gonna break."

Kisame snorted and grinned down at her amusedly.

"You expect mercy from a 'highly deadly criminal'?"

"I mean, it was worth a shot," she bit out, clearly in pain. Luckily, Itachi seemed to be on her side for some reason.

"Kisame, you may release her."

"What?" the sharkman said, looking at his partner in surprise. Itachi met his shocked stare with now onyx eyes.

"She's of no threat. She has no weapons…or chakra."

Sasori, Deidara and Kisame all looked at him as if he were stupid. All living things had chakra—and she didn't look all too dead to them.

"Kisame," Itachi said again and without hesitation Kisame released his grip on her. Skylar proceeded to fall on her ass again, and she groaned slightly.

"Damn man…c'mon," she whispered, reaching back to rub the soreness. However, before she or the four present Akatsuki members could say anything a chill swept through the room. Knowingly, the four males turned to look at their leader who had just entered—and he didn't look too happy.

"You," he said, shifting his ringed purple eyes to look up into the single brow eye that shown through Skylar's hair. She was completely frozen. "Stand."

Quickly she did so, suddenly feeling as if she had joined the military or something.

"Come," he continued and swiftly turned on his heel, heading back down the dark hall. Skylar stared after him, feeling her heart drop into her stomach.

Sure, the other guys were intimidating, but Pein contained all their intimidation and more. He was the leader of the Akatsuki, and he wasn't about to fuck around with her. If he wanted her gone—she'd be gone with the snap of his fingers.

"C'mon chickie," Kisame said, snapping her out of her fearful thoughts. He brushed past her, following after the Akatsuki leader and grinning at her over his shoulder.

Apparently he was actually getting some humor out of this situation, unlike the others.

"You don't want to receive the boss's wrath, right?"

Taking a deep breath, Skylar realized that he was right and bravely followed after him—Deidara, Sasori, and Itachi watchfully following after her. For a minute Skylar walked steadily down the hall after Kisame until they took a turn and ended up in a large room. After a moment, she realized that it was the room where she had landed a few days before.

"Oh, so she came back," a voice commented, and Skylar turned to find Zetsu standing at the edge of the room, looking at her calmly. "**That's somewhat unfortunate."**

There was a grunt of agreement, and Skylar turned her eyes in the other direction. Hidan and Kakuzu were already in the room as well. Hidan was watching her with an unpleasant scowl, and Kakuzu pretty much looked the same. At the head of the room stood Tobi and Konan too, which meant that she was currently standing in a room with all ten Akatsuki members.

She was so screwed.

"You will either sit and cooperate or you will be bound and forced to," Pein spoke seriously, his purple eyes narrowed dangerously. Nodding, Skylar took a step forward and sat in the chair which was directly in front of her. The Akatsuki members all remained standing, staring at her intently.

"State your name."

"Skylar," she answered robotically, not able to pull her eyes away from his stare.

"How did you get into our base?"

"I have no idea."

The Akatsuki leader frowned, clearly unhappy with her answer, and immediately Skylar attempted to defend herself.

"Listen, I really don't know. I had just lain on my couch to take a nap and suddenly I landed in your base. I swear to you that I'm not doing this on purpose—because I'm not. I know you—and I know you don't need me to be a part of your day."

Kisame snorted quietly, still apparently humored by her sarcasm, but Pein continued to stare at her calculatingly. For, like Itachi, he had also realized her pedestrian-like attire and lack of weapons. Though, the most concerning thing about her was her clear lack of chakra.

"Where are you from?" Pein questioned after a moment, and Skylar blinked, pressing her lips together. How was she supposed to answer that?

Well…honestly was an option.

"I am…not from here," she put lightly, cautiously watching the Akatsuki's reactions. Most of them frowned at her answer, looking confused.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Hidan said flat out, his arms crossed angrily, and Skylar wanted to sigh.

How was she supposed to explain that she was from a world where their lives were narrated and sketched out by a man named Masashi Kishimoto? After all, telling them that she pretty much knew everything about them, their pasts, and their futures would probably only serve to make them even more suspicious and weary of her—and at the moment that was something she really didn't need. She just wanted to figure out why she was dropping into their base like this and not get killed in the process.

"I'm, uhh, not from your world," she finally replied, hoping that honesty would be the right option once again. They all looked at her as if she was insane, so Skylar quickly continued. "Well! …I mean it's more like…I don't know. We live in…parallel universes? No, that would mean the people are same…so, yeah, separate worlds—"

A quick reflection of light into her eyes made Skylar freeze, and instinctively she leaned back as far as possible in her chair, trying to escape the kunai that was hovering a mere inch away from her neck. Said kunai was attached to a nearly invisible string of chakra which led back to frustrated looking red head.

"Since you apparently know who we are despite the fact that you're going on about this 'separate worlds' nonsense, I can only assume that you understand how _patient_ of a man I am," Sasori said somewhat sarcastically, and with a tiny twitch of his finger inched the kunai even closer to her neck. Skylar gulped and glanced up at him.

"I know that you're an absolutely _wonderful_ man Sasori," Skylar said nervously, noticing how his brown orbs narrowed at the mention of his name. "And I apologize for my stuttering rambles; however, I'm trying to figure out what's going on as well. You Akatsuki members aren't the only ones inconvenienced, so _please_…"

For once the Akatsuki members all seemed to be baffled by her words. It wasn't just them…? It was her too…?

With a tiny sigh and another twitch of his fingers Sasori flicked the kunai away from her, returning the weapon to the pouch on his hip. Skylar let loose a breath she'd been holding in a situated her nerves before speaking again.

"So…where were we?"

"You live in a separate world, yeah?" Deidara questioned, reminding her, and Skylar nodded.

"Ah, yes…and I know it sounds weird, trust me, but I'm being serious. In my world we don't have any shinobi or village systems like all of you do, but in our world we know about yours at least."

"How come you know about our world, but we don't know about yours?" Kisame questioned, raising an eyebrow at her, and Skylar shrugged.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. That's just how it is."

Well, maybe that was a little bit of a fib—because she knew why: they were all figments of a Japanese man's imagination—but she didn't want to get into that. It'd just make things worse for her.

"And how do we know that you're not lying to us?" Kakuzu muttered, still not fully convinced with what she was saying. Skylar could tell that the others agreed with his question, because she could still sense a lot of tension filling the room.

"Well, for one I believe that earlier Itachi stated I don't have chakra, which from what I understand about your world is something living things usually have and—," Skylar looked down at her chest and placed a hand on it before looking back up at the criminals. "—I do believe that I'm alive so, I mean…,"

Suddenly she cracked a tiny smirk and shrugged her shoulders.

"Or I could be a witch."

Simultaneously nine Akatsuki members rolled their eyes; however, Tobi instead gasped and pointed at Skylar, shaking his hand.

"See, I _told _you!" he said proudly, and Hidan immediately raised his hand and smacked the back of Tobi's head. The masked man cried out and began to rub the hurt area while the other members continued their conversation.

"I suppose that either way we have no choice but to trust you for now," Pein concluded despite seeming reluctant. "So, let's figure out how you keep appearing in our base."

"Yeah, that's seriously fucking weird," Hidan added in nonchalantly, furrowing his brow at her. "Like, you just keep popping outta damn nowhere."

Tobi nodded quickly in agreement. "It's like magic!"

"**Or a curse**," Black Zetsu offered, and Skylar's eyes suddenly went wide. A few days ago…that fortune cookie she'd gotten…

The Akatsuki noticed the change in her demeanor and intently started to look at her again.

"What, yeah?" Deidara questioned. "Do you remember something?"

"Yeah," Skylar said, looking up at him in confusion. "A few days ago I was eating dinner and opened a fortune cookie that said '_the next time you fall asleep in a different place—adventure awaits'_…I thought it'd been bullshit like every other fortune cookie because when I went to bed that night nothing happened…," she said, the gears in her brain continuing to turn and connect the dots as she continued to explain. "But… the next day I took a nap on the couch and that's when I dropped in on you guys…"

"So when you slept in your bed nothing happened because that's a typical place for you to sleep," Itachi reasoned, catching on to her train of thought. "However, the next day when you napped on your couch—which was 'different'—you transported here."

"Where are you sleeping now?" Sasori questioned, glancing over at her, and Skylar blinked.

"On the couch," she answered, the dots all connecting.

That fortune cookie hadn't been bullshit at all…it'd actually put a curse on her or something.

"So what? Every time you fall asleep somewhere that's not your own bed you'll just drop into our base, yeah?" Deidara surmised, and Skylar nodded.

"I mean…I guess so."

"Well, there's a simple solution then!" Hidan exclaimed happily, grinning cheekily. "Just don't fucking sleep anywhere but your bed!"

Immediately Skylar snorted a laugh, and a few of the Akatsuki members raised an eyebrow at her.

"Dude, I'm a 17 year old girl—you honestly can't expect that of me," she said and then considerately put in, "though, if I'm gonna drop into your base from now on, I'll try not to mindlessly take naps anywhere."

"I believe that's a good idea," Pein nodded, and Skylar could sense his underlying statement of 'seriously try not to pop into our business anymore'.

"Now, how do we get you to go back to your world?" Kisame said, addressing their next issue, and the group all shared a look again.

"Well…when Hidan attempted to kill you the first time—that seemed to work, yeah," Deidara said, and Skylar slowly nodded. The idea seemed plausible…however—she really didn't want to try that method again. She hated feeling like she was really going to get sliced in half by the insane Jashinist.

"_Well_," Hidan suddenly said, sounding happy as he reached over his shoulder and gripped the hilt of his scythe. He then picked it up and swung it in front of him, the blunt end of the weapon hitting the ground. A grin slowly started to spread across his face and Skylar could see the happy anticipation to kill her being to slip into his maroon eyes.

"I guess it's time you say goodbye," Hidan continued and shifted the blade, lifting it up. Skylar realized that he was about to swing that damn scythe at her again and started to scoot back in her chair as if trying to get away.

"Hidan," Pein said, trying to get him to stop, but the Jashinist was gone at this point. All he wanted to do was kill her, and nothing was going to stop him.

"Hidan wait, man," Kisame spoke, also trying to stop him, but Hidan was already in motion. His scythe had already been lifted and swung, and Skylar was still frozen in her chair. However, before three bladed weapon could have a chance to either send her back or kill her for good, Skylar was suddenly ripped from the chair by some invisible force.

She hit the floor a little ways from the chair just as it was decapitated by Hidan's scythe.

"Ow, god…," she grumbled, heaving herself up painfully. As she did so she noticed the tiny blue threads which were attached to her and looked up to Sasori. The puppet master simply stared at her, not looking apologetic that he'd thrown her against the ground or relieved that he'd saved her, but Skylar supposed that she should have expected such a reaction either way. She was still their new nuisance—and Sasori likely hadn't saved her because he'd wanted to.

It was because they still had more things to say to her.

While Skylar got her shit together and heaved herself up off the ground, Kakuzu harshly kicked Hidan in the ass.

"Hey! What the fuck?" The Jashinist exclaimed defensively and Kakuzu glared at him.

"Next time we all tell you to stop, fucking stop," the miser said and Hidan childishly began cursing under his breath.

"Now," Pein said, drawing everyone back into the conversation once the zombie brothers were done with their spat. "We've figured out the basics of this situation. Something happened that makes you come to our world every time you sleep somewhere that's not your bed."

He paused to glance at Skylar, and the female nodded in confirmation at what he was saying. Plus, it was a common courtesy to let people know you were listening to them.

"And we also believe that they only way to send you back into your world is by killing you," Pein continued and then looked around at his members. "So, before we do so and send you back, let's establish some rules.

"As much as you can, you will try not to invade our business any further," he said, and Skylar nodded. She had figured as much—but it kind of sucked that she had to be conscious about the naps she took now…

"Since this situation seems to be put upon you as well—," Pein continued, and Skylar was a little bit surprised that he had sincerely listened to what she'd said earlier. That this wasn't just their problem but hers too.

"—we'll treat you fairly respectably and send you back when you happen to accidently come into our world."

"Alright," Skylar agreed with a nod. After all, those terms were extremely fair—especially coming from the Akatsuki leader. They could've easy chose to not help her and let her rot away, or do other such harsh things, but Pein had set in stone that she'd be treated 'fairly respectably'—and to Skylar that was enough.

She was still amazed at the fact that they'd actually listened to her and what she'd had to say on the situation. Sure, she'd imagined that that Akatsuki weren't all bad considering that they were human beings too, and not complete savages, but now she was seeing it all with her own two eyes.

The Akatsuki didn't seem to be that bad.

But then again—this was her first day officially meeting them. She had no doubt that just as their attitudes towards her could get better, they could also get worse.

"So, now that that's settled, is it time to send the little girl home?" Kisame said with a grin, glacing at her, and Skylar started to feel nervous again.

As Hidan started to ready his scythe one more time, Skylar began to pray that their theory was right and that she wouldn't be sliced in half.

"Ready?" Hidan asked after a minute like the masochist he was, and Skylar glared at him. Tensing her body, she quickly replied.

"Make it fast, asshole."

And he did.

With an ecstatic grin, the Jashinist propelled the scythe around and swung it into her. By the time the blade had passed fully through her, Skylar had faded out of existence. Once again there was no blood—no trace that she'd even been there.

For a couple seconds after her exit the Akatsuki remained silent. However, finally Pein broke it as he strode towards the exit of the room.

"Meeting dismissed," he said simply, and then just as he was passing through the threshold, Konan beside him, added in, "and don't forget the set terms."

With that, the Akatsuki leader and his second in command disappeared, leaving the rest of his members standing there. Soon, though, the rest of the criminals dispersed as well, going back to what they had been doing previous to Skylar's appearance.

However, it was somewhat hard to forget about the brunette haired girl who would now be dropping into their base from time to time. She was a nuisance—but at the same time she had also been polite, and understanding towards them. She didn't act hateful towards them despite knowing who they were—like the people in their own world did.

She was different.

And they weren't sure how to feel about her yet—but they were sure their feelings on her would solidify as she continued to pop into their lives. Whether those feelings would get worse or better, they didn't know.

But surely they'd find out.

* * *

><p><strong>We meet again, I see. Well, here's the official, first long chapter. Hopefully you all like it, and I'm not skewing the Akatsuki too much. I always try and keep personalities the same (in the beginning at least, because I like having character development in my stories). Or, I try at least.<strong>

**Anyway, thanks so much too everyone who's reading! I got a lot of positive reviews on the first chapter and it made me really happy! Also, I got a review from 'Jenova' letting me know that I used first person and third person POV last chapter accidentally. That's because I originally had the prologue typed in first person, but then decided that stories sound much better in third person, so I went back and changed it. I guess I happened to miss some, so thanks for letting me know! I went back and fixed the ones you pointed out. **

**Also, I've got finals starting at the end of the week, so I'm not sure when I'll have time to update. Next weekend, if I'm lucky, but during Thanksgiving Break I have to finish my summer work for AP Lit before the new trimester starts, so I may be busy doing that and not have time for this. **

**Trade offs man, they suck.**

**And on top of that, I'm currently stressing out about college. I got accepted into the Uni I want to go to, so that part is done and over with, but now I've still got other shit to figure out so mehhhhhhh.**

**I'll figure it out. I'll get it all done. **

**I CAN DO ITTTTTT.**

**Maybe.**

**Anyway, I should probably go and get dressed. I think my mom and I are going to the varsity jacket store in a little while, because I want a varsity sweater for Christmas. I've been sitting on the letter since Freshman year, so I figure that now that I'm finally a senior, I might as well get one.**

**Yep. But, again, thanks to all you guys who favorited, followed and reviewed. For only having a chapter out before this update, I think this story is doing pretty good already. **

**Thanks.**

**Please Review!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Normal POV**

It was a little over two weeks before Skylar dropped into their life again. In fact, it'd taken her so long to come back for a visit that they'd almost forgotten about her. _Almost._

In the kitchen, Deidara was chewing on a piece of toast and Sasori was sipping his cup of black coffee when they felt a tiny spike of chakra. A second later, with the help of chakra enhanced hearing, the two artists heard a little bump—like the body of the teenage girl hitting the floor—and then a tiny curse.

Calmly, Deidara and Sasori glanced over at each other, and Sasori waved his hand in the air nonchalantly.

"You go and get her brat," Sasori commanded before sipping his coffee again. With a tiny, annoyed roll of his blue eyes Deidara shoved the rest of his toast into his mouth before turning and exiting the living room.

Their base—or, rather, the base they were staying in at the moment—was one that was dark, damp, and labyrinth-like. To get to any room one had to take multiple twists and turns—and if it weren't for the fact that this was one of their main bases, Deidara was sure he would've gotten lost about 99% of the time.

However, despite the fact that he knew where he was walking…he didn't know where he was going. Skylar didn't have chakra—which meant that he couldn't locate her easily. It also meant that he actually had to prowl around and search.

Man, she was a pain in the ass.

Sighing, Deidara first started towards the conference room, remembering that that was where she had first appeared—but to his disappointment she wasn't there. Next, he checked the hall outside Pein's chambers, but she still wasn't there either.

"I swear I'm gonna kill her, hmm," Deidara grumbled as he stomped back to the crossroads and then tried a different hall. This hall contained half of their bedrooms—save Pein and Konan—both who roomed in a different hall as the leader and co-leader. The first sets of rooms were Tobi and Zetsu's, followed by Kakuzu and Hidan's a little ways down. At the end of the hall was also a door that no one ever entered besides Hidan (since it was his 'private room')—but Deidara had a sneaking suspicion that the Jashinist kept dead bodies or some other kind of fucked up shit stored in there.

However, more importantly—that brunette haired teen was still nowhere to be found.

Should he use C2? Or maybe C3 since he was feeling especially pissed off at this point…

Feeling his anger growing, Deidara turned into the only hall left to check and trudged through the dimness. This hall housed his, Sasori, Itachi and Kisame's rooms. And finally—fucking _finally—_when his and Sasori's rooms came into view towards the rear of the hall, Deidara noticed a figure sitting on the floor, looking lost.

"Did you really not bother to get up and look for any of us, yeah?" he questioned blandly as he stepped up beside her. Immediately Skylar blinked and then looked up towards him innocently. Deidara blinked in response, noticing something peculiar.

Her right eye…wasn't brown.

But her left eye was.

"Was it like that before, yeah?" he mumbled aloud, somewhat mystified and confused, and Skylar frowned.

"Was what like what?" she questioned, finally heaving herself up off the ground to face him. As she brushed off the back of her pants Deidara looked her over. She was definitely the same girl who had invaded their base twice before.

"Were your eyes two different colors?" he elaborated, crossing his arms, and Skylar blinked again.

"Oh, uhh, yeah," she replied somewhat awkwardly, glancing away. Unconsciously she lifted her hand up and started to mess with the clip that was holding back her bangs. "Usually my hair covers it."

Deidara nodded, remembering that both times she'd appeared before her hair had been down, and that it'd subsequently been covering her eye.

"So," he finally said, getting right down to business and he flared his cloak back, shoving his hands into his clay pouches. As his hand-mouths began to chew on the white substance, he grinned over at the female who was maybe only an inch shorter than him. "How would you like to die, yeah?"

"_Actually_," Skylar countered, smiling slightly as her eyebrows creased in a pleading manner. "I was hoping that I could hang out for just a little while?"

Unimpressed, Deidara raised an eyebrow at her.

"And why would I let you do that, hmm?"

"Well, you could show me around the base since you were complaining earlier about the fact that I didn't move to look for anyone…since, you know, I don't really know where anything is…and then, I mean, after that you can just kill me I guess," she shrugged. "I told you all before that I don't want to be too much of a burden…"

Deidara narrowed his blue eyes at her, slowly removing one of his hands from his clay pouch. It continued to chew and mold the clay as he stared at her calculatingly.

"You expect me to trust you?" he asked, sounding a little unimpressed, and Skylar very badly wanted to roll her eyes at him.

"In your line of profession, Deidara, I would expect that you don't trust anyone," she said smartly, earning herself a tiny smirk of amusement from the artist. The gesture made her feel a bit better about the situation, and she continued, "however, I think by now we've all established that I am a chakra-less, weak girl who's only weapon is being a sarcastic smartass."

"You got that right, yeah," Deidara mumbled under his breath, smirking again, and Skylar couldn't help but bring a hand up to hide her own grin. It was nice to see that the Akatsuki weren't as evil as they were always portrayed to be. Skylar had always thought that they must've acted like normal ninja and had fun times at some point too.

It was actually really reassuring to see Deidara like this and not off attempting to kill the next Jinchuuriki.

"What are you smiling about, yeah?" Deidara suddenly grunted, and Skylar broke out of her thoughts to find him striding down the hall in front of her. Pausing, the blond glanced over his shoulder at her with an impatient blue eye. "My creations are ready, and I want to be done with this tour fast so I can get a chance to use them."

"Oh, yeah, sure," Skylar immediately replied and then jogged after him as he continued up the dark hall. She wanted to complain about how damn _fast _he was walking, but figured that the fact that he was even showing her around was enough to ask for one day. She was sure one miracle a day was her limit anyway…

"The two rooms you landed in front of were my and Danna's rooms, yeah," Deidara begrudgingly explained to her, glacing behind him to make sure that she was paying attention. Her brown and gray eyes were wider than normal as she took in the dark hall and the new setting around her, and Deidara couldn't help but roll his eyes.

She looked like a kid who was visiting the Hokage monument for the first time.

"Oh, and those doors," Deidara continued, shoving a thumb over his shoulder as an indication to the two more closed doors they'd just passed, "—those are Itachi and Kisame's rooms."

A couple seconds later the two entered the main corridor, and Deidara stopped, motioning to the second farthest right hallway.

"We just came from there," he clarified, pointing to the darkened hall to make sure she knew where he was talking about. "The farthest right hall leads to the conference room, yeah—which, by now, you should be acquainted with."

Skylar breathed a laugh at his blunt sarcasm but nonetheless nodded, paying close attention. She honestly wanted to memorize this so she could find her way around later on.

"The far left hall leads to Pein and Konan's rooms, though I suggest you try and stay out of there if possible, yeah."

"I'll try," Skylar mumbled sincerely, but she didn't know if she could. After all, that damn fortune cookie voodoo dropped her where ever the hell it felt like dropping her. First the conference room, then their coffee table—which she supposed she should apologize for breaking at some point—and now the hall in front of the Deidara and Sasori's rooms. As far as she knew the witchcraft could drop her in on one of them while they were showering.

…and while, yes, she thought that they were all smoking hot—Konan included, because _let's be honest_—Skylar was pretty sure she'd be traumatized for life by something like that.

"The second hall to the left is Hidan, Kakuzu, Tobi and Zetsu's rooms," Deidara said and then crossed his arms, frowning. "I should warn you that there's another door at the very end of the hall, but only Hidan goes in there, yeah. So…"

"Avoid it?" Skylar guessed and Deidara puffed out a breath in slight humor.

"To say the least," he said, and then turned on his heel once again and started to strut down the corridor. Skylar quickly turned and attempted to keep pace with him. A few moments later she spotted a light in the distance and felt her irises hurriedly attempt to adjust to the change in brightness.

Once she could see again, Skylar realized that she was in the living room she'd landed in before—and that the coffee table she'd broken had already been replaced. Surprisingly, this part of the base actually looked cozy. There were couches and chairs, a tiny bookcase—and right across from the living room was a kitchen…where Sasori was sitting and staring at her in unmasked confusion.

Lowering the coffee mug that he'd half-way been holding up to his mouth, Sasori calmly placed it on the countertop and shifted his hazel eyes over to Deidara.

"She's still here," he observed simply, completely ignoring her presence, and Skylar rolled her eyes, having expected no less from the puppet master. He was a little stuck-up, and had had high sense of pride (in her opinion at least) so she expected that—for a little while at least—he'd ignore a worthless intruder—as she was at the moment.

"I decided to show her around base, so the next time she pops in we don't have to look for her, yeah," Deidara said with a shrug and then walked into the kitchen, leaving Skylar standing there alone awkwardly.

As the blond artist walked over to the fridge and started to rummage around, Skylar stiffly made eye contact with Sasori, who was still staring at her. His emotionless eyes were trailing her up and down nonchalantly, and while most males in her world did such a thing because they were checking a girl out, Skylar knew that Sasori was doing it for a purely non-romantic reason. In fact, he was probably just memorizing her features, since that's what ninja were supposed to do when considering the enemy.

…The 'enemy'. She really didn't like that word…and she definitely didn't want to be considered one.

"May I ask what you're doing not sleeping in your own bed at this hour in the morning?" Sasori suddenly asked, finally turning his attention away from her, and Skylar didn't mistake his 'may I ask' for kindness. It was clearly a demand.

"I accidently woke up too early," she admitted with a shrug, not mentioning the part where she'd thought that she was late and had rushed to get ready before realizing that she'd read the clock wrong. "I passed out on the couch without thinking."

Sasori grunted in acknowledgement at her statement but continued to sip his coffee and read the papers in front of him without looking over to her.

Still standing there awkwardly, Skylar slowly padded towards the kitchen and then glanced around the tiled area. The kitchen was semi-messy, but she supposed that since they were busy people they didn't have much time for house cleaning and such.

There was a clink of glass and Skylar glanced over to the fridge where Deidara was still standing. In his hand was a half eaten bowl of white rice which looked like it'd been carelessly thrown inside.

Frowning, the blond reluctantly grabbed a pair of chopsticks from one of the cupboard drawers and then started to eat the dried out rice. Skylar watched him with a frown of her own, feeling a little bit grossed out for him.

"Is…is that your breakfast?" she quietly asked, and Deidara blinked. He looked up at her like he'd forgotten she was there already.

"Oh, yeah," he replied somberly and then—with evident hesitation—took another bite.

"I can cook something for you, if you want," Skylar offered after another moment of watching him suffer, and both Sasori and Deidara looked up at her suspiciously. Immediately Skylar realized the mistake she'd made.

"I promise I'm not going to poison you!"

"Even so—you're not going be cooking anything," Sasori replied hardly, his eyes narrowing on her again. "We do not need your assistance with anything."

"Oh _sorry_," she said somewhat sarcastically, not able to help it after he'd been fairly rude to her. I mean—_really._ She wasn't going to try and kill them! What didn't they understand about that?! She was fucking harmless, and actually really liked them as characters. And besides that, if she tried anything they would've killed her in an instant anyway.

"I just figured that since neither of you seem able to cook, I'd help out. But if you wanna eat dried out, left-over rice, then please do so."

"Your attitude is starting to try my patience," Sasori said, glaring at her now and Skylar really wanted to glare back at him. Instead, she turned her head to the side and quietly grumbled:

"I could say the same to you; and I'm actually a very patient person…"

"What was that?" Sasori cut in, still boring his brown eyes into her sternly, and Skylar sighed.

"I said that I was sorry, and that you have a right not to trust me—even though you can."

"_Right_," Sasori granted sarcastically, and Skylar really wanted to punch him. Though, that would get her killed. Wait…but then she'd just go back to her world, so maybe it was worth it, right?

Nah…Sasori had poison under his belt too, and she wasn't sure how that would affect her compared to a normal blow. It wasn't worth the risk to find out either.

"But really, do ninja know how to cook? You're all so busy after all," she questioned after a minute, figuring that since they hadn't murdered her yet she was free to hang around until they were done eating their meal.

"Some do, yeah," Deidara admonished, his mouth full of the old rice he'd apparently gotten used to. "Though a lot don't."

"Who cooks for you all then?"

"Itachi, typically," Sasori surprisingly replied. "Though, currently we're the only ones here."

"Missions?" Skylar guessed and Sasori grunted. She took that as a 'yes'.

A troublesome silence then occurred between the three, the only sound in the room being Sasori's papers as he shuffled them around and Deidara's chopsticks as they hit the nearly empty bowl of plain rice. Once again, Skylar felt awkward just standing there, so she instead shuffled over to the kitchen table where she noticed a deck of cards were sitting.

Pulling out a chair, she silently sat down and then skillfully counted out the cards. When she was satisfied that it was a perfect, full deck she picked the stack back up and began shuffling.

Honestly, she felt incredibly weird sitting their doing such a thing—but at the same time neither Deidara nor Sasori had killed her yet. Apparently they wanted to enjoy their breakfast before getting their hands dirty or something like that…

Not wanting to start playing a game so casually right in front of them, Skylar continued shuffling endlessly. Well…until she felt eyes boring into her and looked up to find both Deidara and Sasori staring at her intensely.

"Sorry?" she immediately questioned shyly, not sure if she'd done something wrong.

Sasori was the first to speak.

"Do you play cards a lot?" he questioned, and Skylar could only guess that he'd assumed such a thing because of the way she'd shuffled and counted the cards. It was a ninja-like thing to observe, anyway.

"I do," she admitted. "I usually carry a deck with me everywhere."

Sasori hummed in acknowledgement, and shifted on his stool a bit. He then picked up his papers and evened them out by tapping them against the counter top. Once he was satisfied, he stood and walked over to where Skylar was sitting. A little intimidated by the teenage looking man, the female remained silent.

"Are you adequately acquainted with the layout of our base?"

For a moment Skylar glanced up at the ceiling, envisioning a cognitive map of the Akatsuki base. There were four halls—the left was Pein and Konan, the right was the meeting room and the middle two were rooms for the others…

"I believe so," she responded, and Sasori nodded his head at her sufficiency. Getting his vibe, Skylar set the deck of cards in her hand on the surface of the table top and then stood to face him.

"Make it quick?" she asked, and with a tiny smirk at her modesty, Sasori clicked open the first few buttons of his cloak. As soon as his stomach was reveal the coil there shot out and impaled her stomach. Immediately she was gone from the room, and Sasori released a sigh while retracting the bloodless—for once not coated in poison—coil back into place.

"What's up, yeah?" Deidara questioned at noticing his partners attitude. He was standing over at the sink, rinsing out the bowl he'd just finished clearing the rice out of.

"She is…peculiar," Sasori mumbled, sitting down in the seat that she'd just vacated. He picked up the cards and began to shuffle them.

"Why's that, yeah? Cause her eyes were different colors?"

"Her Heterochromia Iridum is different, yes," Sasori admitted, missing Deidara's eyeroll at the fact that his partner actually knew what the term for differently colored eyes was called. But then again—this _was _Sasori.

"Then what are you talking about, Danna?"

"The girl…simply…isn't really afraid of us," Sasori said quietly as he started to deal out a game of solitaire on the table in front of him. Silently, Deidara also agreed with his partner.

It was honestly weird to meet someone who wasn't immediately terrified of them and actually knew who they were. Skylar was aware that they were murderers and criminals, yet she treated them like regular people.

They couldn't emphasize how _weird _that was.

She was weird.

But…at the moment—that wasn't necessarily a thing.

* * *

><p>Later that day, Itachi and Kisame arrived home from their mission to find Deidara attempting to scrub char from the kitchen stove. Sasori sat at the kitchen table playing cards nonchalantly.<p>

"What…what the fuck did you do?" Kisame asked with a laugh, and Deidara narrowed his eyes dangerously at the shark man.

"I attempted to show that I could cook, yeah."

"Which he can't," Sasori put in smartly, laying another card from his hand on the table as a smirk made its way to his lips.

"Shut up, yeah!"

Sighing, Itachi simply pinched the bridge of his nose and padded into the kitchen. He grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water before taking a seat at the table across from Sasori. Kisame joined the two at the table a minute later after fetching a bottle of sake from the fridge.

"So, _she_ showed up today," Sasori said after a moment, not looking up from his game.

"Oh? The kitten showed up?" Kisame asked with a grin. Itachi calmly continued to sip his water before setting it down and speaking as well.

"How'd it go?"

"As fine as you'd expect," Sasori replied honestly. Itachi and Kisame both raised an eyebrow.

"No problems at all?" the Uchiha questioned, and Sasori shook his head slightly.

"She was well behaved, if not a little sarcastic at times."

"Which I'm sure you loved," Kisame commented, knowing how sarcastic the puppet master was himself.

Sasori rolled his eyes. Though, he did have to admit that her sarcasm had humored him a bit. Plus, having the guts not bend to their every will was a little…'admirable' as well.

"Do you believe that she'll cause problems in the future?" Itachi asked, and Sasori shrugged his shoulders a little.

"At the moment—no, I don't believe so. She seems to know her place in this situation, as we also acknowledge hers. As long as both parties are on the same page I don't believe she'll be much of a hindrance to how our lives were before."

"Well, that's good to know," Kisame grinned heartily, taking a swing of the sake bottle. Across the room, Deidara noticed and frowned distastefully.

"You're not the only one who drinks the sake, yeah."

"You wanna fight about it?"

"Sure," Deidara replied with a grin. He reached into his cloak and pulled out the creations he'd already made. "I meant to blow the chickie up with them earlier, but Danna did the job before I could get the chance."

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Kisame responded playfully, and with a knowingly look the two disappeared from the room in a puff of smoke. Once they were gone, their partners sighed. Sasori picked up all the cards he'd placed on the table, re-shuffled them, and then dealt two hands of cards. Itachi picked up one and Sasori picked up the other, and they indulged in a game rummy while trying not to think of the brunette teen fresh on their minds.

* * *

><p><strong>My hands smell like hamburger. I think I need to wash my hands.<strong>

**Anyway, hello again. I'm supposed to be studying for finals but I've decided to 'fuck it all' at the moment. I'm honestly done stressing out about it. At the moment I'm looking at 4 A' unless I severely screw up the finals I have left somehow...which I don't plan I doing. Because I will study...just not now.**

**Meh. I was home sick on Wednesday, barfing my guts out. I thought about writing then, but didn't because it all would've come out as gibberish anyway. I was so sick lol. I haven't thrown up...well, only since Sophomore year, I think...but I threw up four times and each time it only got worse...**

**On the bright side, once my stomach was empty and I was finally able to eat food again, my mom bought me Dairy Queen, so that was fun!  
><strong>

**Also, strangely, because I had to look up the term for Skylar's eyes, I realized that I have something similar called 'Central Heterochromia'. That means that my eyes are different colors in the center than on the outside...which they are. The inside is light brown right around the pupil, while the outside are a bluish gray. I just thought it twas cool, ya know?**

**Anyway, hopefully you all are liking the story so far. I've been getting a lot of reviews and helpful critiques from you all, so that's been really helpful! I really appreciate it!  
><strong>

**But...yeah. I got (more) senior pictures tomorrow. Our district is weird, and if you don't get your yearbook photo done by a certain company...then you don't get a picture in the yearbook. And I kinda want a picture in the yearbook. ALSO! I ordered my varsity sweater last weekend and I'm looking forward to getting it around Christmas time! There's gonna be a giant bass clef on the back, because fuck yeah cellists (also bassists are cool too, I mean).**

**Anyway, enough of my rambling! Thank you guys so much for the support so far!**

**Please Review!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Normal POV**

It was a little weird, to say the least, to sporadically drop into the Akatsuki base every once and a while. It'd been nearly two weeks since Skylar had dropped in for the third time, and now here she was once again, sitting at the end of some dark hall in their dank base.

Sighing, Skylar pushed herself up and brushed the dirt and dust off of the back of her jeans, glancing around the hall wearily. Yes, Deidara had shown her around the last tome she'd popped in, but to be honest all of the halls in their base looked the damn same. There were no landmarks or anything out of the ordinary to use to identify what hall she was in.

"Hire an interior decorator," she grumbled quietly to herself as she finally took her first step away from the spot she'd landed. Carefully, Skylar treaded up the hall, gently brushing her hand against the smooth cave wall as she went.

In the dark, she honestly couldn't see much, so when her hand slid off the cold rock and instead landed on what felt like flat, sanded wood, she paused. After her eyes adjusted a little she could see the outline of a door, and quickly retracted her hand. Keeping it to her chest, Skylar then took a few steps away from the door.

This was the Akatsuki base, and that was likely one of their rooms. Invading or even getting close to their personal hideaways was a death wish.

Not to say that she didn't have one already, 'cause, you know—but she wasn't going to invade their rooms. She got pissed if her dad or brother just waltzed into _her_ room—so she imagined that the Akatsuki would be just as pissed but x10.

Releasing another sigh, Skylar turned and once again continued down the hall. However, after a couple seconds Skylar heard a tiny clicking sound from behind her and managed to push herself against the wall just as three kunai shot out of the darkness and imbedded in the wall straight down the hall.

Breathing heavily and with wide eyes, tentatively Skylar peeled herself off the wall and glanced in the direction the kunai had come from. No one appeared, and no sound was made, so she could only guess that she'd set off some sort of trap.

"Holy _fuck,_" she cursed and with a boost of speed ran down the hall. When she made it to the crossroads she wearily breezed past the three kunai in the wall and continued towards the family room/kitchen.

"Oh hey kitten," Kisame greeted when she entered the threshold. He was sitting on the couch eating a triple-decker sandwich. When she didn't speak, her glanced up at her.

"Woah, why does it look like you just walking in on your grandparents having sex or something?" he laughed, referring to her wide eyes and overall still scared demeanor.

"First of all—that's fucking gross," she replied, pointing a finger at him. "And second of all—I was walking down the hall and accidentally touched someone's door and kunai came after me!"

"Ah, that sounds like Kakuzu's room," Kisame responded nonchalantly and took another bite of his sandwich. "He keeps it rigged like that because usually Hidan goes up to his door and stands there to see if he's inside—"

"So he can steal money?" Skylar guessed, and Kisame grinned at her.

"So you _do _know about us," he granted humorously. "But yeah, usually Hidan will run away if Kakuzu is inside, but Kakuzu won't forgive him either way so he rigs the kunai to fire as Hidan would be walking away."

"But what if anyone else goes near his room?" Skylar questioned incredulously. Kisame shook his head, waving his hand in the air.

"No one would dare. We usually stay in our own space, kitten—that's why when you showed up we were really put off guard."

"Well, it's not like I did it on purpose," Skylar mumbled, crossing her arms, and Kisame rolled his eyes at her.

"We know," he said, surprising her, and then motioned to one of the other pieces of furniture around the room. "Now why don't you sit for a little while? When I'm done eating I'll kill you."

"Oh, alright," Skylar responded, a little thrown off guard by his casual attitude and kindness. Nevertheless, she took a couple steps forward and stiffly sat in the chair in front of her, feeling like a kid who was entering someone else's house for the first time. Kisame watched her from the corner of his eye, somewhat amused by her.

To be honest, he didn't really mind Skylar dropping in every once in a while. Their missions and lives were so boring sometimes—especially because they weren't going after the Jinchuuriki at the moment—so having her pop in every once and a while was somewhat entertaining.

"So, I heard you behaved well for Sasori and Deidara last time," Kisame spoke, catching her attention. Skylar blinked at him.

"Am I a pet?" she mumbled sarcastically to herself, and Kisame snorted a laugh.

She really was entertaining—to him, at least. Well, actually, from what Kisame could tell Deidara or Sasori didn't mind her too much, and at the moment Itachi was still neutral towards her, so that wasn't bad either. Hidan and Kakuzu…he wasn't sure about because they hadn't seen Skylar much yet, and hadn't spoken with her one-on-one.

Tobi and Zetsu probably didn't care about her either way though, because…they just didn't. That was how they were. And Pein—Pein had made his thoughts on her pretty clear during their last meeting—that she was a little bit of nuisance, but since she hadn't meant for this to happen that they'd treat her in a non-hostile manner. And if Pein felt that way, then Konan likely felt that way too.

"Though, from what I hear you also accused them both of not being able to cook, and once you were gone Deidara tried to prove you wrong," Kisame continued, getting the feeling that that would perk her interest a little.

"Really?" she immediately said, turning to look at him, and Kisame grinned.

"Yeah, Itachi and I got back later that day and found the kitchen burnt to shit."

"Haha!" she laughed, surprising him since he hadn't heard the sound before. Skylar clapped her hands, rocking back in forth. "That's hysterical!"

"Yeah," Kisame agreed, chuckling a little as he took another bite of the sandwich that was nearly gone. "It looked like he'd taken coals from a fire and smeared them all over the place."

Skylar started cracking up again and this time Kisame joined her, her laughter seemingly contagious. However, after a couple of seconds there was a loud, purposeful cough and both quieted immediately, turning to find Deidara standing in the doorway. Itachi and Sasori were both standing behind him, amusement showing in their eyes but not on their faces since the blond in front of them seemed to be ticked.

"It wasn't my fault, it was the ovens, yeah," Deidara defended, crossing his arms as he shifted his glare to Skylar. "And besides, I'd like to see you do any better."

"If you let me cook in your kitchen—like you wouldn't the last time—then I _will_ do better," Skylar replied after a moment, confident, and the four Akatsuki members all shared a look, a little skeptical at her proposition.

"Oh c'mon, I can't possibly do more damage than Deidara," Skylar tried to reason, attracting Deidara's fierce blue glare again, and she was tempted to smile.

"I suppose that's true," Sasori agreed with her after a minute, shrugging his shoulders. Itachi dipped his head as well, but looked to her with surprisingly onyx colored eyes, saying:

"I have to warn you, however, that at the moment we don't have many items in our kitchen. We haven't been shopping in a while."

"That's fine," Skylar said and hopped up, shuffling towards their kitchen. "I'm good at making things from scratch."

Quizzically, the four Akatsuki members trailed after her, watching as she walked over to the cupboards to begin surveying. However, just as her hands grasped the handles of the cupboards, she paused and looked back at them.

"When I open these am I going to be shot with kunai?" she asked, looking a little worried, and Sasori raised an eyebrow.

"Did you happen to go near Kakuzu's room?" he questioned, and while Kisame started snickering at Skylar's annoyed look, Itachi sighed quietly.

"None of the drawers in the kitchen are booby trapped," he said, and Skylar nodded at him gratefully before finally pulling the cupboards open. What she found inside was pretty much what she expected to find with a man like Kakuzu in charge of their finances.

There was lots of cup ramen, white rice, and really old looking bread. Besides that, there was a bag of flour, a tiny bit of sugar, a tiny bit of salt, and other baking products. In the fridge there were some left over onigiri, a few eggs, milk, butter, and some suspicious looking vegetables and fruit.

"Can you use anything?" Kisame questioned at seeing she was done with her inspection of her stock, and Skylar nodded.

"I think I can," she admitted as the gears in her brain started to turn. She then started to grab all the materials she'd need, placing them on the countertop in front of her.

"Hey, do you guys have a mixing bowl or something I can use?" she questioned, briefly glancing over her shoulder at them, and without speaking Itachi stepped forward. He reached into one of the higher cupboards that she wouldn't have been able to reach at her height of 5'4" anyway, and then produced a bowl and placed it down on the counter for her.

"Thank you," she responded politely, and for a moment Itachi stared at her, a little touched by her kindness towards them. A person being nice and polite to them usually wasn't something that happened, so for once he considered it a nice change.

"You said that you could cook from scratch?" Itachi questioned after the moment as he watched her work, and Skylar nodded. At seeing her confirmation Itachi respectfully continued, "Did your mother teach you?"

"She did not," Skylar responded, and Itachi raised an eyebrow. "I live alone most of the time—I taught myself."

"You taught _yourself_, yeah?" Deidara quoted, seeming surprised, and once again Skylar nodded.

"Yeah. After a while you get tired of eating the same food from packages, so I figured out some meals that I could actually make out of real ingredients."

"You're only, what? 18?—"

"17," Skylar responded, and Sasori rolled his eyes.

"_17_," he continued, now corrected. "And you live alone?" He wasn't sure how it was in her world, but in their world 17 was still a little young for shinobi to move out and start life on their own—unless, of course, you were Akatsuki—but their situations were a bit different than everybody else's.

"What about your family?"

"My dad travels a lot for his job," Skylar replied nonchalantly, beginning to mix the concoction she'd made in the bowl Itachi had given her. "So usually he's never home. And my older brother lives on his college campus, so I only see him on weekends sometimes and at holidays."

"College? What the hell is that?" Kisame questioned, and Skylar turned to look at him, blinking in confusion. She'd forgotten that they didn't have the same schooling system that was in her world.

"Oh, in our world—since we don't have ninja and stuff—every kid is required to attend school until they're 16."

"_16_, yeah?" Deidara quoted, seeming appalled, and Skylar smiled at little. To them—who could graduate from the academy as early as 6 or 7 and become a full fledged ninja—having to be in school until the age of 16 probably seemed a bit outrageous.

"Yeah," Skylar confirmed, continuing to stir the bowl in her hands. "At 16 you can drop out of school—but that won't get you anywhere. Instead you usually stay in school until you're 18, and then after that you have a choice to attend college or not—which is usually another 4-6 years of schooling and usually costs about 20,000 to 100,000 dollars."

"Holy shit, tell that to Kakuzu and he'd have a fucking heart attack, yeah!" Deidara said, seeming utterly shocked at what she was saying, and Skylar couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Yeah, you can imagine that people my age aren't very happy about that," Skylar snorted. "But we have to live with it, I guess."

"Well shit—you should just live here with us!" Kisame joked, and Deidara sarcastically added in.

"Yeah, you can be our maid/cook, hmm!"

"Well thanks but no thanks," Skylar said with a tiny smirk and an eyeroll. "Your boss would murder me, and I probably have better chances surviving in my world either way."

"That's likely true," Sasori agreed from where he'd seated himself at the table. He'd dealt himself out a game of solitaire while she was working. "Though earlier you said that you're in school, correct? Why are you there at the moment then?"

"Ah…hahaha…good question," she laughed sheepishly and immediately Itachi narrowed his eyes at the girl.

"You're not sleeping while you're in school are you?"

"I can help it!" she immediately defended, not bothering to try and cover up the fact that she was. "After 12 years it gets pretty boring, man!"

"Skylar," Itachi scolded, and the girl held up her hands. However, on the inside she was secretly a little happy that one of them had finally called her by her actual name.

"Fine, fine, fine," she said and sighed loudly. She flipped the contents of the mixing bowl onto the baking sheet she'd discovered earlier on and started to tear chunks off of the batter, rolling them into balls.

"Once I've done this I'll put it in the oven so it can bake and then you can send me back," Skylar relinquished, working diligently to get done.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Kisame said, raising both his eyebrows at her. "You're just gonna leave us here to finish your work?! Aren't you cooking so we don't burn down the kitchen?!"

Skylar rolled her eyes.

"Literally all you have to do is take the sheet out of the oven. I'll set the timer—the over is already warm. You'll be fine."

"If you say so, yeah…," Deidara grumbled skeptically and Skylar snorted a little laugh.

"Besides, if I remember correctly then I believe you said Itachi could cook," Skylar said, sparing a glance to the Uchiha who had raised his eyebrows at her in surprise. "I trust him to know how to take a tray from the oven at the very least then."

"Of course," Itachi said, dipping his head, and Skylar smiled. She then turned back to the batter, continuing to roll the thick dough into balls before placing them on the tray. The four Akatsuki members watched her work, entranced by the rhythm she had created.

She seemed almost like a mother at the moment, preparing a meal for her family that she had made many times before—which is why they found it a little hard to believe that she'd taught herself, and hadn't been helped by her mother—who typically would be the baker of a household.

In fact…she hadn't even mentioned her mother at all.

"Skylar, you mentioned your father and brother," Itachi started quietly, watching her intently from the corner of his eye. "…but what about your mother?"

It was almost immediately that the four could sense a shift in Skylar's demeanor. Her previously light working flow slowed down, and her glowing face dimmed. However, at the same time they could also tell that she was trying not to let it show.

"My mom passed away when I was ten," she said, and the four stared at her.

"Yeah?" Sasori said, watching her closely, and she nodded.

"Yeah," Skylar echoed as she began rolling the last few balls of batter. "She was killed."

At that, all the present Akatsuki members raised their eyebrows, a little surprised to hear something like that.

"I thought you said your world didn't have ninja," Kisame said, and once again Skylar nodded.

"We don't," she confirmed. "But we still have accidents and weapons."

"…so was it an accident, yeah?" Deidara asked tentatively. He wasn't sure how to approach the subject—mostly because he didn't want to make her cry or anything despite the fact that he wanted to find out what had happened.

"Maybe," Skylar said bitter-sweetly and then snorted a laugh. "We don't really know. The guy was high on some kind of drug—he claimed he didn't know what he was doing."

"So, what happened?" Sasori asked, getting right to the point. He didn't have the patience for the roundabout method the others were using.

"My mom and I were coming out of a store, this guy approached us with a knife, he went for me—"

"He went for _you_?" Kisame said in surprise, interrupting the story it seemed that she must've told a million times by now.

"Yep," Skylar confirmed as she moved over to the sink to wash her hands off. "He went for me but my mom noticed and shielded me. The guy managed to hit a major artery though, and…"

"She didn't make it?" Itachi guessed solemnly, and Skylar nodded.

"Yeah…"

"That sucks, yeah," Deidara said honestly, feeling a bit bad for her, and surprisingly Skylar laughed.

"Tell me about it," she said good-naturedly, smiling a little, and then walked back over to the now full tray. Humming, she picked up said tray and then walked over to the oven, pulling the door open. Immediately heat flooded out, and Skylar scrunched up her face at the uncomfortable temperature, nonetheless reaching her hand inside and placing the tray on one of the racks.

"There," she said proudly, pushing the oven door closed with her hip. She brushed her hands together and glanced over at the four innocently.

"Do you have a timer anywhere?"

Without reply, Itachi walked over to where a tiny white timer was sitting on the counter top and then handed it to her.

"Thanks," she replied politely and twisted the dial so it was set on 15 minutes. Once everything was in place, Skylar took a calm breath and placed her hands on her hips, turning to the four.

"Alright, from this point on it's completely all of your faults if the kitchen burns down," she said, clearly ready to be sent back as she'd agreed earlier.

"You're not even going to tell us what it is you've actually made for us?" Kisame questioned as he stood from his chair at the table, grabbing Samehada from where he'd leaned the sword against the wall a little ways away.

"Nope," Skylar said with a grin. "But you all saw me make it, so you know that it's not poisoned."

"That's true, at least," Sasori agreed, and Kisame stepped towards Skylar, a grin coming to his face.

"Ready?" the sharkman questioned and, taking a bow, Skylar gave her consent. Shaking his head at her in amusement, Kisame then lifted up his sword and quickly brought it down on top of her. There was a second of resistance against the blade before Skylar disappeared and the sword hit the ground where she'd been standing.

"You're lucky you didn't break the tile," Itachi commented after a moment as Kisame carefully picked his sword up.

"Yeah, yeah," the sharkman responded, rolling his eyes. He turned and walked out of the kitchen.

"I'm going to put this in my room—guard the food," he said over his shoulder before disappearing down the dark hallway. Deidara rolled his eyes at the blue skinned man once he was gone and then pushed himself off the wall where he'd been lounging, tentatively approaching the oven. Quizzically he grasped the door and pulled it open an inch, peaking inside at the white balls that were starting to melt onto the baking sheet.

"If you've got any chakra infused clay on you I suggest you get away from there, brat," Sasori told him sternly, and Deidara glared over his shoulder at his partner.

"I'm not that stupid, hmm."

"Well…," Itachi mumbled quietly from the other end of the kitchen, and Deidara immediately shifted his glare to the Uchiha.

"Speak _nothing_," Deidara said, and Itachi didn't. Instead he turned and walked out in the family, picking up a book which had been left on the coffee table. A couple minutes later Kisame reappeared out of the hallway and joined his partner in the living room while Sasori continued to play cards and Deidara began molding some of his clay.

After another ten minutes the timer sounded and Itachi quickly set his book down and gliding into the kitchen. Grabbing a cloth, he wrapped it around his hand before pulling the oven open and lifting the tray out. As he set the hot metal tray on the stovetop, Deidara, Sasori, and Kisame all gathered around, looking at the final product of what Skylar had made for them.

"It looks like some kind of cookie," Sasori observed, and Itachi nodded.

"I believe that she made us a batch of sugar cookies," the Uchiha stated and slapped Kisame's hand away when he reached for one of the creations.

"You have to let them cool for a few minutes," Itachi commanded, and Kisame sighed irritably. However, before he could say anything a buzz of chakra from the ring on their fingers stopped them, and soon Pein's voice popped into their heads.

"_Sasori, Deidara, I need you to head to Kumo and retrieve a scroll for me. Itachi and Kisame will stay at the base. Hidan and Kakuzu should be returning there in a little while."_

"Hai," all four chorused, and Pein's voice quickly left their heads.

"Well, looks like we better get going, yeah," Deidara said, cracking his neck back and forth. Sasori sighed and pulled a scroll out from his cloak. With a couple handsigns Hiruko popped out.

"C'mon brat," the puppet master bid as he stepped into his creation, and Deidara nodded.

"Alright, hmm."

However, before the bomber could get too far he quickly turned back and grabbed two cookies despite Itachi's warnings.

"Ow, shit!" he cursed, causing the Uchiha to roll his eyes, but either way the blond shoved one of the hot cookies into his mouth.

"Oh damn," he mumbled after a moment, his blue eyes wide in surprise. "That's good, yeah."

"Then that second cookie better be for me, brat," Sasori commented, and without thinking about it Deidara tossed said cookie to his partner just before he sealed himself away inside Hiruko.

"Yum," the turtle-like puppet grumbled in his dark voice after a moment, and with that the two wandered out of the room towards the exit of the base. Once they were gone Kisame glanced over to Itachi.

"Does that mean I can eat one now too?"

"I suppose," Itachi sighed, and with a triumphant grin Kisame walked over to the stove and picked up one of the sugar cookies. Quickly he tossed the whole thing into his mouth, immediately reaching for another one.

"Seriously, if Skylar doesn't wanna live in her world then she can be our cook," Kisame said between mouth-full's, and Itachi smirked a little.

Yes, he agreed with his partner that he didn't mind the female teenager too much anymore, but having her be their cook was going a little overboard. Especially because Pein likely wouldn't be too happy about it.

However—now that he knew she could cook—he (and the others, for that matter) would likely take advantage of the fact from now on.

She was much less troublesome than they'd originally imagined her to be.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello there lovelies. Hopefully you had a good thanksgiving. And if you don't celebrate thanksgiving, then I hope you just had a good day lol.<strong>

**Anyway, I don't have much to say. I finished my summer work for AP Lit yesterday, so I figured I'd try and post a chapter of something before the weekend is over. Besides that, I'm pretty sure I finished off the first trimester of my senior year with a 4.0, so I can't ask for anything better. Now I don't really need to worry too much about my GPA this trimester when I have two AP's compared to the one I only had last tri.**

**I wouldn't be stressing out about my GPA anyway expect for the fact that the Uni I want to go to accepted me with a really good scholarship, and requested my transcripts be sent again when the year is over. It's like I don't think they'll retract the money, but that 4.0 is helping me stress out a lot less lol**

**Anyway, I'm kind of looking forward to 2nd trimester, simply because it's closer to graduation. I (all seniors) actually have an assembly the day we get back on Monday concerning caps and gowns. Everything is coming so fast but I'm honestly totally ready for it. I ready to be done with high school. **

**Also looking forward to no science or math classes for the rest of the year. Next tri I've got orchestra, AP psych, AP lit, IB Japanese, and Web Design. I didn't sign up for web design, but it doesn't seem like it'll be too much of a hard class, so I'm okay with it. After this tri I've got 4 elective classes third tri, so I'll be ridding my way to graduation easy.**

**Hell yeah.**

**I'll stop rambling now lol**

**Have a good weekend guys. Hopefully you're all liking this still. Thanks for reading.**

**Please Review!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Normal POV**

Usually Hidan had two moods he switched between—boredom and rage. He was bored whenever he wasn't covered in blood and impaling flesh and bone…which meant that usually he was bored 6 out of 7 days of the week—and he was in rage…pretty much whenever Kakuzu spoke to him, so, I mean…

However, today seemed like it was going to be different, for once, because just as he was stepping out of his shower he felt a tiny spike in chakra, and then heard a quiet curse from the hallway just outside his room.

Blinking, Hidan grabbed a towel from the floor and wrapped it around his waist before exiting the bathroom. He already had a fairly good idea of who had appeared—because there was only one girl who had the ability to travel through worlds as far as he knew—and when he opened his bedroom door and stepped into the hall he found exactly who he was expecting to see. Skylar was sitting on the floor, her back turned to him and a hand gingerly rubbing her hip where it'd hit the ground.

Since she hadn't noticed him standing there, Hidan took a minute to look the girl over again. She was just as he'd remembered her—brown haired, skinny, and flat chested. That was kind of a disappointment to him, but on the bright side it _did _seem that she had a nice booty. Plus, if he remembered hearing her correctly, she was only 17 so—

"Jesus Christ, Hidan!" she suddenly exclaimed, snapping him out of his thoughts, and he refocused his eyes on her. She was still sitting on the floor, but had apparently spotted him standing there. One hand was on her chest, since he'd surprised her, but the other was on the side of her blushing cheeks. The girl wouldn't meet his eyes either.

That made him grin.

"What?" he said and took a few steps towards her, not shy at all about his state of dress—or, rather, _undress_. "Are you really that fucking innocent?"

"What?" Skylar replied immediately, confused as she turned around to look at him, her multi-colored eyes narrowed. Hidan grinned wider in response, finding her anger funny.

"I said that you're innocent, bitch. Are you hard of hearing?"

"In fact, I'm not," Skylar replied, turning to face him. She placed a hand on the cold floor and pushed herself up to stand as she continued. "And I'll also have you know that in my world, we have something called the internet and I'm _quite _found of it. So, it's not that I'm innocent—you're just narcissistic is all."

'Whoops, that seemed to touch a cord,' Skylar realized as she noticed Hidan's grin fade away, his maroon eyes narrowing at her. Threateningly the Jashinist took another step forward, towering over her as his bare chest remained only inches from hers.

"I don't know why the others are fucking warming up to you like they are, but at the moment I'm not convinced that you're all that, _bitch_," Hidan spat, clearly angry. Defensively, Skylar narrowed her eyes in response.

"Well, Hidan, it's not like you deciding to like me will improve my day at all," she replied calmly, and he hated the way she was speaking so smartly. "So, frankly, you can choose to feel however you want. Besides, up to this point it's not like I've provoked you or done anything to make you act this way towards me."

"Actually, the minute you opened your pretty little fucking mouth you provoked me, bitch," Hidan responded heatedly, and Skylar blinked in surprise when he suddenly reached a hand forward and dragged her into his chest. Instinctively Skylar raised her hands and placed them on his abs, trying push away, but Hidan was much stronger than her—as expected.

"And you say that you're not innocent," Hidan darkly teased, a grin spreading across his lips once again as he noticed that Skylar cheeks were flaming.

"You—!" she started angrily, still struggled to detach from him, but another voice interrupted her.

"Hidan, let the girl go," Kakuzu's unamused voice spoke, and the two turned their attention to the miser that had appeared out of the shadows behind them. Grumbling irritatedly, Hidan surprisingly didn't argue with his partner, releasing Skylar from his grasp.

Immediately the teen stumbled back away from the Jashinist, glaring at him angrily. In response, however, Hidan shot her a snarky frown, and Kakuzu thought that the two looked like a pair of bickering idiots.

Which, surprise surprise!—they were.

"We're going grocery shopping," Kakuzu commented, crossing his arms sternly as he glared at the Jashinist. "I told you to meet me at the enterance as soon as you were done with your shower."

"Well, as you can see, I got a little fucking detoured."

"That's not my problem," Kakuzu responded, turning on his heel. "Get dressed, we're leaving."

"Fucker," Hidan growled once he was gone, turning back towards his room. However, just as he grasped the door handle, preparing to step inside, he paused and turned to glare at Skylar.

"You just wait right there, bitch," he said. "I'll take care of you in a minute."

And then the door to his room slammed shut…and Skylar promptly turned on her heel and calmly walked away. A minute later she stepped into the threshold of the family room, spotting Kakuzu near the doorway on the other end of the room.

Blinking, he glanced up and met her stare, his eyes narrowing.

"You're not gone yet," he commented plainly, and Skylar held back from rolling her eyes.

"I'm not," Skylar agreed, and then folded her hands behind her back innocently. "So…you're going grocery shopping?"

Kakuzu grunted, and she took that as a 'yes'.

"Can I come with you?"

Well, that seemed to finally get his full attention.

"Excuse me?" he responded, clearly surprised. Skylar only pressed her lips together, knowing that she didn't need to repeat herself. And, after a moment, Kakuzu spoke again.

"Give me a reason why I should bring you," he bargained, surprising her, and Skylar's eyes widened. Was he actually considering taking her along?!

"Well, I can cook, and—"

"Won't that just be wasting ingredients then?" Kakuzu countered, and Skylar honestly felt like she was in some sort debate class.

"Did you get a chance to taste the cookies I made last time?" she questioned.

"I did," Kakuzu admitted. He and Hidan had arrived at the base the same day she'd made the cookies, and had been surprised to find out from Kisame and Itachi that Skylar had baked a batch for them. At first he was hesitant about trying one, not trustful of her, but eventually gave in and ate one anyway.

"And how was it?"

"It was…good," he responded honestly.

"Well, if you take me along I can pick out basic ingredients for a lot of dishes and that way when I keep showing up I can make meals for you all."

"Yes, but while your cooking is good, I don't see why I should expend any more money than I have to," Kakuzu countered, and Skylar sighed. However, she was kind of flattered at his offhanded compliment.

"Think about it. For most of the recipes I know I make big batches so I can save them and eat them later. If you expend a little money now and I make batches big enough for, well, almost 8 people worth—and, taking into consideration that usually 5 or less people are at a base at a time—then you'll have leftover's—which is food that you technically don't really pay for. Plus, then you'll go longer amounts of time without having to spend money on groceries."

Stunned by her elaborate explanation, Kakuzu couldn't help but stare at her, internally impressed.

She was very convincing.

"You may come along," Kakuzu granted, stunning her. However, before Skylar could make any kind of reply there was an angry stomping coming from the hall behind her.

"Oi, bitch!" Hidan called, appearing in the room. He was now fully clothed, his Akatsuki robe on and everything. "I thought I told you to stay there!"

"Yeah, well, I—," Skylar tried to argue, but, pissed, Hidan had already lifted his scythe and swung it at her. Scared, she made a sound of surprise and tensed, but the blade never hit her. Instead it had been intercepted by a flurry of Kakuzu's tendrils.

"Hidan, do not kill her," Kakuzu spoke sternly, "she is coming with us."

"_WHAT?" _Hidan screamed, absolutely dumbfounded as his scythe dropped heavily to the floor.

What the fuck had happened in the three minutes he'd been gone?!

"There is no _fucking _way that she's coming with us!"

"She's coming—end of story. Now c'mon, idiot, let's go."

And with that, Kakuzu promptly turned and disappeared into the dark hallway. Skylar remained still for a moment, slightly tentatively to follow, but the moment she glanced over at Hidan and saw that he was practically growling, she quickly decided she'd be safer in the creepy hall she'd yet to explore and jogged forward.

The hall was literally pitch black, and Skylar had no idea how any of them could possibly see where they were going. She had to place a hand on the wall just to assure herself that she was heading in the right direction…

Though that didn't seem to be enough help for her because she managed to catch her shoe on some sort of rock and immediately fell forward. She braced for impact but surprisingly an arm roughly wrapped around her torso, steadying her.

For a couple seconds Skylar remained silent, not sure who had come to her rescue, until she suddenly found herself hoisted upon a pointy shoulder, a hand on her ass.

"Hidan!" she barked, angry, and in response the Jashinist lifted his hand and smacked it down again, causing her to growl.

"Bitch, I'm not happy that you're here so be grateful I'm fucking carrying you," Hidan grumbled in response, and Skylar could feel him strutting down the hallway quickly.

"Why do I need to be grateful for _that_?" she responded passionately, but found out a moment later when Hidan emerged from the dark hallway and into the bright day. After her eyes adjusted for a moment, Skylar could see that they were now outside the base, standing on the bank of a tiny river. There was a field of flowers just across the way, and beyond that was a forest.

Skylar didn't recognize the base or scenery from anything she'd seen in the manga or anime.

"Let's go," Kakuzu grunted, and without any warning he and Hidan suddenly jumped off the bank and started bounding through tree's into the forest. Skylar gasped involuntarily in shock as the world started speeding past her and Hidan's shoulder started to dig into her torso every time he jumped off a branch.

"Hidan," she said quietly, wincing in pain. She was seated backwards on his shoulder, watching the base disappear behind them instead of seeing where they were going.

"You're going to break my ribs in…"

"Shit, there are a lot of worse injuries," he commented innocently, and Skylar narrowed her eyes, turning her head to glare at the back of his.

"I hate you."

"Well waddaya know?! The feeling is mutual," he responded amusedly, and Skylar snarled at him. Though, after a minute she calmed herself and instead tried to focus on the scenery passing her by.

Being in the Akatsuki base was one thing, but actually going out into their world was another. Outside the base the world seemed much brighter. Their air was clear and all the colors around her were vibrant. It was actually pretty beautiful, and Skylar understood why the Akatsuki usually traveled more instead of hiding inside a base all day.

"Hey, Hidan?" she said quietly after a couple minutes, glancing back at the man carrying her, and at hearing her calm and polite tone the Jashinist actually paused and glanced back at her.

"Is there something you want me to bake?"

"What?" he replied, surprised, and Skylar elaborated.

"I mean, like, is there a certain food you like to eat that you haven't eaten in a while? After all, I'm coming along so I can get ingredients to cook for you guys, so…"

Hidan was honestly put off by her kindness, and it somewhat scared him. Nonetheless, though, he racked his brain and eventually replied to her.

"Make some more of those cookies you baked last week," he mumbled, and Skylar blinked, glancing at him again.

"Sorry?"

"Those cookies you made last week were fucking good," he mumbled a little louder, seeming embarrassed that he was even admitting that he'd _really _liked her cooking. "Just make more of those—that's what I want."

It took Skylar a second to register his words, but once she did a smile spread across her face and she turned to hide it from him, knowing he'd likely get more flustered and angry if he saw it.

Honestly the Akatsuki weren't _too _bad. You just had to be nice to them first.

A couple minutes later the two Akatsuki members slowed down and hopped down out of the trees, walking along the grass until they stopped just a couple feet away from the edge of a road. Finally, Hidan bent forward and allowed Skylar to slide of his shoulder—but not before groping her one last time. Skylar immediately blushed and smacked him, but he just grinned happily in response. Kakuzu stood a ways away, watching the two with an eyeroll.

"Hidan," he said gruffly, and the Jashinist immediately sighed.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied, waving his hand in the air nonchalantly, and immediately the two Akatsuki members stripped off their cloaks. Skylar watched them quizzically as they then proceeded to ball them up and hide them under a bush nearby.

"Ninja sometimes stroll through his town," Kakuzu explained when he saw Skylar watching them with a frown. "On trips like these we don't need trouble."

"I see," Skylar said, nodding. That made sense, after all. She was sure the Akatsuki didn't want to get into fights anytime they went anywhere in the public eye.

"Now c'mon," the miser suddenly spoke again, motioning to her. "We're heading into town. Stay close to us."

"Alright," she replied and jogged after the two as they exited the forest and started up the path towards the village a little ways away. After a minute they entered the tiny village, passing through the moderately busy streets, and heading towards their destination.

Skylar made sure to stick close to the two Akatsuki members, knowing that if she got lost they probably wouldn't bother to look for her, and she'd be lost forever. Well…maybe not so extreme, but she honestly didn't want to lose track of them.

"Here," Kakuzu grunted and Skylar looked up to find a tiny grocery store in front of them. Together all three walked inside the building, and once inside the miser thoroughly glanced at the two beside him.

"You two stick together," he said sternly before turning away, adding in, "and don't fuck anything up."

"Bastard," Hidan spat instinctively as the old man disappeared, and then turned to glance down at Skylar.

"Well," he said impatiently, "Get what you need!"

"Oh," Skylar responded, surprised, and hurried glanced around. After a couple of second she walked the opposite direction Kakuzu had, and Hidan calmly trailed after her. Together the two entered the aisle devoted to baking ingredients and immediately Skylar stepped up to the bags of flour. She plucked one off the shelf and without looking held it out for Hidan to take. He blinked once, taken off guard, but instinctively reached forward and took the bag from her. Skylar sent him a brief smile in thanks before moving further down the row towards the sugar, leaving him standing there, confused.

Why had he taken the bag from her?

"Hidan," she suddenly called, breaking him out of his daze, and he looked up to find her standing a couple feet away, holding a bag of sugar out for him to take. She blinked innocently when he didn't move, cocking her head to the side quizzically, and immediately Hidan scoffed.

"Why the hell am I carrying this shit for you, bitch?" he questioned as he walked over to where Skylar was standing, the bag of sugar still in her arms.

"Well, mostly because you want me to make those cookies you think are delicious," she replied smartly, grinning at him, and Hidan snarled.

"I never fucking said that…," he grumbled, glancing away, and Skylar rolled her eyes.

"Delicious and 'fucking good' are synonyms, Hidan," she replied, quoting him from earlier, and the Jashinist scoffed.

"Bitch…"

"Love you too," she replied sarcastically and Hidan couldn't help but crack a smirk.

"Whatever," he eventually gave in and reached forward, taking the bag of sugar from her. Skylar immediately flashed him a smile and then moved to grab more ingredients. By the time the two had gathered all the ingredients they needed and went to find Kakuzu, Hidan was weighed down by bags and Skylar was cradling a few things in her arms as well.

"You know, you could have gotten a basket," Kakuzu said blandly at seeing them, and the two shared a look.

"Dammit!" Hidan cursed and promptly stomped away. A minute later he returned with a basket in his arms rather than a ton of baking ingredients and offered said basket to Skylar. Gratefully she dumped the food items in her arms into the carrier, and Kakuzu watched them from the sidelines, rolling his eyes again.

They were both stupid.

However, he _did _think that it was rather unbelievable that she had gotten Hidan to act somewhat tame around her. He'd have to ask her for a strategy or something because even _he_ couldn't accomplish that yet.

…then again she was a girl and he was not—and that was probably a key point.

Kakuzu sighed, bringing a hand up to rub his temples.

"Oi, bastard, what's up with you?" Hidan questioned, furrowing his brow, and immediately the miser sighed again and then turned away.

"Nothing. Let's go."

Grunting, Hidan followed after him and Skylar trailed a little ways behind him, watching the two with genuine curiosity as they approached the checkout.

It was honestly somewhat amazing to see them interacting with other human beings that weren't Akatsuki members or people out to get them. They were calm and casual, if not a little awkward, and it honestly surprised her.

"Oi, bitch, we're going," Hidan suddenly called, and Skylar broke out of her thoughts, noticing that the two Akatsuki members were standing in front of the store doors, waiting for her to follow. Immediately she became frazzled.

"Oh, sorry!" she replied and jogged up to them as the two turned and exited the store. Together all three then walked back into the busy streets and started towards the outskirts of the town. Once again, Skylar became distracted by all the foreign sights and wasn't watching where she was going—subsequently bumping into someone in the process. Kakuzu and Hidan immediately heard her quiet cry of distress and turned to see her falling, but neither could catch her thanks to the groceries dominating their arms.

So, Skylar end up catching herself on her palms, the gravel and dirt digging into her hands painfully. Luckily she hadn't banged anything else on the ground, but her palms sure as hell hurt…

"Ow," she grumbled pushing herself up, and once steady on her feet looked at her hands.

Clearly there were tiny pieces of gravel lodged in her skin, and there were a few dots of blood as well, but nothing too serious.

"Hey, bitch, you alright?" Hidan question, raising an eyebrow at her as Kakuzu and he continued to stare at her, only _slightly_ concerned.

"Yeah, I suppose," she sighed and gently brushed her hands on her pants, continuing to walk beside the two. They both got a good look at her hands when she held them up in front of her again, and decided that her injures weren't too bad at all.

"How the hell are you so fucking clumsy?" Hidan seriously asked her as they finally reached the edge of the town, heading down the dirt road they taken into the village. Skylar glared at him, her mood having worsened because of the sting her hands now felt constantly.

"Well, firstly, your base is dark as shit, and, second, a man bumped into me and that was the only reason I fell."

Hidan scoffed. "That's still your fucking fault."

"I will hurt you," she responded, and Hidan barked a laugh as they strayed off the path towards the bush where the two had abandoned their cloaks. Momentarily Kakuzu set his groceries down so he could put his cloak on, but Hidan didn't.

"Hey, bitch, get my cloak," Hidan commanded, and Skylar rolled her eyes. Nonetheless she walked over and grabbed the fabric from under the bush, holding it in her arms.

"And what am I supposed to do with it?" she questioned, getting the vibe that he wasn't going to put it on considering he wasn't moving to put his groceries down.

"I don't fucking know! Wear it?" he suggested exasperatedly and then turned towards her, kneeling down on the ground. "Now hurry the fuck up and get on."

Blinking in surprise, Skylar quickly slipped the cloak over her arms and then moved forward, tentatively seating herself on Hidan's back. Once she was settled Hidan locked his arms around her legs and then abruptly stood up, causing her to instinctively wrap her arms around his neck to steady herself.

Hidan laughed when he looked back and noticed that she was blushing furiously, likely both pissed off and embarrassed.

"I fucking hate you," she grumbled as the two shinobi started to bound through the trees back towards the base. Hidan grinned cheekily.

"I thought you said that you love me earlier?"

"Well, I take that back," she responded, and Hidan breathed a laugh.

He could probably have a few good fights with her.

15 minutes later the two Akatsuki members slowed, their base coming into sight, and once they were standing on the bank in front of the enterance Hidan set Skylar down. Together all three walked back into the base, and Skylar washed her dirtied hands off in the sink while Hidan and Kakuzu put the groceries away.

As soon as that task was done, Kakuzu left the room, leaving Hidan and Skylar there alone.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Hidan said when Skylar simply stood still awkwardly. "Make the damn cookies!"

"Fine!" she replied, sighing, and started to gather the ingredients. After a moment, however, she paused and pulled off the clouded cloak that she'd forgotten she'd been wearing, chucking it back to Hidan. He caught it effortlessly and pulled it over his own shoulders.

It fit him much better than her.

"Hey—," Skylar started, turning to ask him something, but when she noticed that he was frowning, glancing down at his glowing ring, she paused. She waited until the glow faded away before speaking again.

"Pein?" she questioned and Hidan sighed, running a hand through his greased back hair.

"Mission," he responded and then walked towards her, grabbing the scythe he'd discarded against the wall earlier before they'd left. "And that means you gotta go."

"But the cookies?" she said, motioning to the ingredients she'd started to gather. Hidan shrugged, lifting his scythe.

"Next time."

"I suppose so," she relinquished with a tiny smile, and not a second later did Hidan's blade come down on her.

A second later Skylar's eyes shot open, staring at the ceiling of her own living room. Sighing, she stiffly pushed herself off the couch and glanced at the math homework she'd abandoned on the coffee table in favor of taking a nap. After all, at the moment the Akatsuki didn't seem to hate her as much as they had in the beginning, and they hadn't told her that showing up once every, or every other week, was overdoing it, so she figured that she'd take advantage of the getaway while she could.

Groaning, Skylar stood and winced when her hands started stinging again. Actually, her ribs hurt too since Hidan had carried her so rudely when they'd departed from the base…

Suddenly, she became puzzled and glanced down at her newly scarred hands and sore torso, and frowned.

She'd never hurt when she'd gotten home before…sure, when they went to kill her she didn't feel any pain, and dropping onto their floor actually hurt a lot—but she was never sore from it when she got home…

…had she just never noticed it before?

Skylar was honestly confused.

"Oh well," she eventually spoke, telling herself not to worry about it, and then walked into her bathroom to get some Neosporin and Band-Aids.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello all! I wish I'd of had more time to write this last weekweekend, but AP Lit legit swamped me the first week of class. Our teacher pretty much told us all that we'd likely done all of our summer work wrong (because we didn't know how to do one of the requirements on it because we hadn't learned it yet), so we all had to go back and correct everything we'd done wrong. Plus, after that on Wednesday she decided that we were going to begin working on an Oral Presentation (3 days into the class, mind you) so that was literally like WTF LADY. **

**However, on the bright side all the people in my AP Lit class have been in language classes together for the last four years, since we were all Freshmen, and we all get along, so we started this group chat and it's been the funnest thing, I swear. I love them all. All we do is complain to each other. **

**Anyway, how are you all? Did anyone else just start new classes? And if so, what? The only new classes I have are Web Design and AP Lit, so it's not too bad. I made a code in Web Design today, and I thought it was kinda cool. **

**Also, I rewatched some episodes of Inuyasha this weekend! Oh my god, Inuyasha is probably my favorite older anime next to Naruto. I love Inuyasha even more maybe. It's so good.**

**Anyway, I couldn't help but feel as I was writing this chapter that Hidan is somewhat like Inuyasha...Hidan swears a bit more and is actually batshit crazy, but on good days I feel their personalities are similar lol.**

**Well...I don't wanna talk too much, so just let me say that I'm amazed about the favs and follows of this story already, despite the fact that this is only the 5th update. I'm seriously amazed, so thank you all so much.**

**I now need to frost some cookies, so you'll have to excuse me!**

**Also, I'm gonna try and update one of my other stories before I update this one again (because I feel I owe an update somewhere else), so...yeah.**

**Love you.**

**Please Review!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Normal POV**

It was a somewhat boring day. A boring, unproductive, rainy day—and Skylar hated it.

Sighing, the teen picked her head up off of her kitchen table, staring boredly at her opened psychology textbook. Her notebook was nearby, filled with all of the notes she had just taken, and farther across the table was her statistics book too.

She'd just finished all her homework—and now she had nothing to do.

Tiredly, Skylar stood from her chair at the table and strolled into the family room, rolling onto the couch a moment later. It'd been a little over a week since her last appearance in the Akatsuki base, and she couldn't help but wonder what they'd been doing since then. And, more importantly, she wanted to know if they'd enjoyed her cooking.

Silently, Skylar smiled at she rolled over, snuggling into blanket she'd pulled over herself.

She couldn't help but feel like they'd been warming up to her a bit. Sure, they weren't taking her in and accepting her like family or anything—hell, they weren't even like that towards each other—but they were tolerating her nicely, and Skylar wanted to see just how long that would last.

Hopefully…until this problem with her dropping into imaginary worlds was resolved…whenever that would be.

'Stop thinking,' she scolded herself, knowing that pondering the Akatsuki wouldn't get her anywhere at the moment. Instead she pushed all thoughts of the not-too-bad organization aside and let herself slip out of consciousness.

* * *

><p>It was a quiet day in the Akatsuki base—which was honestly a nice change of pace for Konan. Whenever the males were around they were always talking about the last person they killed, strategies for their next mission, the best brands of sake, or any other male-like topic there was. And while she understood planning for their missions, she could live without any of the vulgar topics.<p>

The only nice company she received was Itachi in the early mornings some days when he was brewing the first batch of coffee, or Sasori when he was quietly working on antidotes or poisons. Pein—well, Pein was nice company about every new moon. He was much too focused on trying to reform the world nowadays, and rarely relaxed enough to have a nice conversation with her.

It was a bit of a plain life for the only female member of the Akatsuki…even Kunoichi in big villages shopped and baked and did girly things—but she had no one like that to do anything with.

_Bang! Thump!_

Blinking, Konan lifted her head from the book she'd been staring at and calmly set it down. Quizzically she slid off of her mattress, not bothering to grab her Akatsuki robe to cover up, and then set out into the hallway. She walked a little ways before she heard:

"Boom clap the sound of my ass hit-ting the floor goes on and on and on and…"

The female voice caught her a little off guard, but Konan immediately realized who it must've been.

"Skylar," she called quietly when the female appeared at the end of the corridor, and the teen quickly turned to face her, eyes innocently wide.

"Oh, Konan!" she exclaimed, seeming surprised. Skylar opened her mouth to speak again, but nothing came out, and instead she awkwardly continued stare at the blue haired female a little ways away.

"Hello," Konan instead spoke politely, bowing her head slightly, and Skylar did the same.

"Hi," she replied, smiling a little. "Sorry for intruding, but, you know…"

"It's alright, I understand."

Skylar nodded slowly.

"So…is anyone else around? Or are you basking in the peace and quiet?"

Unable to help herself, Konan cracked a little smile.

"The others are all gone at the moment—though Deidara and Sasori should be returning later today."

"Ah, I see," Skylar nodded, rocking on her heels. "So…are you enjoying your alone time then?"

"I suppose," Konan shrugged, taking a few steps towards her. Skylar remained still, watching the blue haired female with a bit of apprehension. She had never really spoken with the woman before, and she wasn't sure how to act. Around the guys she could just be sarcastic and teasing…but around Konan she really didn't want to upset her or get off to a bad start.

"Can I be honest with you?"

"I'm sorry?" Skylar replied, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Can I be honest with you?" Konan repeated, furrowing her brow a bit, and Skylar nodded.

"Y-Yeah! Of course you can."

"It…has been a long time since I've had any female company," Konan started, her eyes dropping towards the floor, and Skylar realized that she must've been a little embarrassed to be admitting all this to her. It wasn't easy to ask someone you barely knew to hang out—though, Skylar could honestly understand why she was doing such a thing. Konan had only grown up being around men—from Yahiko and Nagato to the men-filled Akatsuki—she had no one of her own sex to bond with.

And…while Skylar doubted they'd _'bond' _she wouldn't deny the blue haired woman some company for a while.

"So…," Konan had continued, trying to figure out what to say, and Skylar smiled. Stepping forward, she gently placed a hand on Konan's shoulder, causing the female's head to jolt up to look at her.

"I gotcha," Skylar said simply with a small laugh, "so? What should we do?"

Konan stared at Skylar in surprise, a little taken aback by how accepting she was, but quickly regained her bearings.

"Well, I noticed the last time I was here that a batch of cookies had been made. I'm guessing that was you?"

"Ah, yeah," Skylar admitted, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly as the two turned and started towards the living room. "Kakuzu and Hidan took me out shopping with them since I promised to make meals for you all…"

Konan blinked in surprise, her eyebrows raising.

"They actually took you out shopping with them?"

"I convinced Kakuzu that it was worth his time and money," Skylar said with a shrug. The two entered the living room and trailed towards the kitchen. Skylar immediately noticed that there were a bag of fresh fruits and vegetables on the counter.

"You must be a very convincing speaker then."

"I try," Skylar laughed and then paused when she reached the kitchen table. "So, who bought these?" she said, motioning to the bag.

"I did," Konan responded politely, picking up the bag. She paused for a moment, emptying the bags contents onto the table. "After all…Kakuzu only buys what costs less—not what's healthier."

Skylar laughed, knowing that what she'd said was true. Kakuzu was always so stingy.

"Well, I commend you for trying to get the guys to eat healthier."

Konan smiled, dipping her head.

"Thank you…but there is a bit of a problem…"

Skylar blinked.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes…I'd like to prepare them in a different way at some point, but I'm…not too good of a cook."

"Oh! Well I can help with that!" Skylar said excitedly and leaned her palms on the wooden table, overlooking all of the colorful vegetables. Konan blinked, surprised by her sudden burst of passion. Skylar was…so innocent seeming…well—in compression to the people Konan was always around.

Skylar still had life in her eyes—got excited about plain things. She was kind…and trusting. It was almost a nice change.

"So? What were you thinking to make with them?"

Konan blinked, placing a hand thoughtfully at her chin. "I'm not sure…I was hoping that maybe you had some ideas as well?"

"Sure!" Skylar responded politely. "Well…you've got a lot of vegetables here that would be great in stir-fry."

"We have rice too," Konan quickly added in, strutting over to one of the higher cupboards. She opened it and reached up, removing a large bag of white rice. Skylar nodded in approval when the female Akatsuki member showed it to her, and Konan set the back down on the counter as Skylar somehow managed to discover a large cutting board.

"First we should cut up all the vegetables that would be good in stir-fry," the teen instructed, walking back over to the kitchen table.

"And what vegetables would those be?" Konan questioned honestly, watching intently as Skylar started sorting through the vegetables. She first picked out some peppers, and then some broccoli and bean sprouts.

"Peppers are always good," Skylar explained, grabbing some carrots and pea pods as well. "Actually…you could probably put most vegetables in stir-fry if you wanted—it's pretty much up to whatever people like."

Suddenly she paused, glancing back at Konan.

"Is there anything that you or the guys don't like?"

Once again, Konan was internally surprised by her consideration.

"No—I'm fine with anything and I think the guys will eat anything placed in front of them," Konan responded, causing Skylar to snort a laugh.

"They take any good cooking they can get, right?"

Konan smiled as well.

"Right."

From that point on, Skylar got to work washing and cutting the vegetables while Konan dug out the rice cooker and got the rice going. Once the rice and water had started to cook, Skylar called Konan over and asked if she wanted to cut some vegetables. The blue haired female gratefully accepted her offer, wanting to learn from the experience at hand, and while Konan took over the vegetables Skylar raided their cupboards for spices and sauces. After a few minutes she found some teriyaki sauce and salt and pepper.

"So…," Skylar spoke while she was rummaging around, knelt down in front of a lower cupboard and trying to retrieve a frying pan. "How's life nowadays?"

Konan blinked, pausing in cutting the peppers, and looked down at her.

"What?"

"I mean…if it's too personal a question you don't have to answer," Skylar shrugged, a little nervous on the inside. Usually ninja—and rouge ninja like the Akatsuki especially—didn't share their personal life with anyone. It basically meant that you were just giving someone information to blackmail you later on. "I just figured that…I don't know—maybe you wanted to talk about it?"

"Well…," Konan started off slowly after a minute, a little hesitant on the topic. She hadn't spoken to anyone about her life in a while…and Skylar wasn't a friend she was close with. But…then again she was the kindest person Konan had met in a while, and, really, what was the harm?

"We've been very busy lately with planning, so I haven't had too much time to relax."

"And I bet planning is stressful," Skylar sympathized, and Konan nodded, sighing freely.

"You wouldn't believe how stressful it is planning to—," the blue haired woman started and then halted when she realized what she was saying. After a couple seconds she sent a quick glance over to Skylar, who was staring at her with a half-way hidden smile.

"Don't worry about it, Konan," she said, placing the frying pan on the stove and turning the burner on. "I know about the Akatsuki—members, motives, and all. I don't plan on spilling your plans either."

"You know about us and yet still chose to act…as you are?"

Skylar smiled, taking the sliced vegetables into her hands and dropping them into the hot frying pan.

"Well…yeah. I mean, if every time I showed up you guys kicked me around and then killed me…I probably wouldn't respond to kindly to say the least."

"Of course," Konan agreed with a dip of her head.

"But…I don't know," Skylar mumbled, staring at the fry pan and she mindless pushed the cooking vegetables around. "I honestly don't feel like any of you are treating me too bad. Deidara showed me around, and Kakuzu and Hidan took me shopping. It's kind of…I want to help you all out in this situation and you're all being pretty fair about me showing up as well so…the kindness is somewhat mutual?"

"Mutual…," Konan echoed quietly.

It seemed absurd, but…maybe she was right. Deidara had put trust in her when he'd decided to show her around, Kisame, Itachi and the others had trusted her when they'd allowed her to cook the first time, Hidan and Kakuzu had trusted her when they'd decided to take her out shopping, and now…Konan was trusting her as well.

Since Skylar had put in an effort, naturally they'd been responding to her kindly as well.

Huh.

Maybe she'd be a good influence on the others then.

"So, how long do the vegetables cook?" Konan questioned after a moment, breaking free from her thoughts. She walked towards Skylar, glancing at the vegetables sizzling in the pan.

"Until they look done," Skylar retorted simply, flipping the pan a little. There was a tiny smile on her face as she did so.

"So, anything else you wanna get off your chest while I'm here?"

Konan shifted her orange eyes up to the girl, feeling such a calm aura from her.

"No…," Konan said after a moment as she took a step back, leaning against the counter. Her eyes lightened as she quietly spoke, "for now, this is enough."

Skylar wasn't sure she was meant to here that last part, so she didn't say anything. However, on the inside she was quite happy. Honestly, she had always respected Konan but had also felt bad because of—you know…how she'd grown up.

All Skylar wanted was for Konan—and all of the Akatsuki, for that matter—to be happy and…eventually not die, but…

In the end, they were criminals…and they would—spoilers—die. And Skylar would…well…she'd think about that later on.

_Beep, Beep, Beep—!_

"The rice is done," Konan exclaimed quietly and turned on her heels, walking quickly over to the rice cooker. She popped the lid open and immediately steam flurried out. Skylar watched from the corner of her eye before turning back to the vegetables in front of her.

"These are almost done too," she commented, reaching down to turn the burner off. Skylar then looked over to Konan, smiling a little.

"So, should we wait for the guys or should we test it first?"

"Usually I'd want them to be the guinea pigs, but I trust your cooking, so…," the female Akatsuki member replied, and Skylar laughed.

"Awesome."

With that, Skylar picked the steaming pan up and placed it on a cool burner, in the meantime beginning to rummage around for some dishes to use. After a minute she found some, and pulled the stack out, taking two from the top of the pile. She then went to the rice cooker and scooped a few spoonfuls onto the plate, placing the cooked vegetables on top of the rice a moment later. Once that was done, Skylar walked over to the table and gently handed a plate to Konan.

"Thank you," the woman said as Skylar took a seat across from her, placing her own steaming plate of food on the table.

"Of course—thank you for helping," Skylar kindly replied, and Konan dipped her head, smiling smally.

"Of course."

Together the two females then dug into their fresh meal, and after a few bites Konan paused, looking up at Skylar.

"This is…actually pretty good."

Skylar laughed, happily shoving another bite into her mouth.

"It is," she said, and then continued, "I'm glad that I have someone to share a meal with for once."

"For once?" Konan said, a little surprised, and Skylar blinked.

"Oh yeah," the teen said, waving her hand in the air nonchalantly. "You weren't here when I explained to the guys—I live alone, pretty much. My mom passed away when I was younger, my dad is usually out of town and my brother lives about two hours away from me."

"I see…," Konan said, nodding her head considerately. "…May I ask what happened with your mother?"

"Sure," Skylar replied, knowing by now that people were usually never satisfied when they didn't know the details on what had happened. Besides, by know she'd told the story enough that it didn't bother her anymore.

"When I was younger my mother was killed—stabbed—and…obviously she didn't make it."

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," Konan spoke with genuine shock and regret, and Skylar glanced up at her, surprised. There was a look of sadness deep in the woman's orange eyes, and after a minute Skylar understood why she was being so caring and understanding.

She was empathizing. Konan had experienced a lot of loss throughout her life so far as well…and Skylar was sure that all that loss definitely wasn't easy on her.

"I'm sorry too," Skylar spoke quietly, her heart suddenly hurting. From the corner of her eye she saw Konan look up at her, but Skylar remained staring at the table, picking at her food with a bittersweet smile.

"You've lost much more than I have…"

Konan involuntarily jolted, a flood of unwanted memories pushing into her consciousness. Her chest tightened, and her bodied stiffened as she tried to suppress the memories again. Skylar was right, she likely had experienced more loss and pain—but that was the life she'd chosen. Skylar, on the other hand, was no ninja, and wasn't supposed to witness people dying in front of her.

"Ugh, now I need comfort food," Skylar suddenly spoke, standing from her chair, and with a tiny smirk walked towards the fridge. She opened up the freezer, and immediately blinked in surprise.

"Are you my saint?" she said, plunking the carton of ice cream from the fridge, and Konan couldn't help but smile.

"I may have splurged on that as well," she admitted, and Skylar laughed heartily.

"May I?"

"Of course," Konan replied. "Mind getting me a bowl as well?"

"I figured as much," Skylar responded honestly, and both of the girls shared a laugh. A minute later Skylar returned to the table. She gave one bowl to Konan and then returned to where she'd been sitting before. Immediately both girls dug in, trying to take their minds off of their sad pasts.

It was a few minutes into their comfortable silence when the base suddenly started to shake. It was a subtle feeling, and stopped after a couple of seconds.

"Deidara and Sasori?" Skylar guessed.

Konan nodded. "Most likely."

And—speak of the devil—a minute later the two artists walked into the room. Skylar raised an eyebrow at their appearance.

Deidara was shirtless, the remaining shreds of his shirt clenched in his hand as he scowled angrily. Sasori was…unharmed—he was only scowling like his partner.

"Do you enjoy walking around shirtless or did something happen?" Skylar questioned amusedly, and the two snapped their attention to her. For a moment they seemed surprised to see her there, but as quickly as they'd become surprised to see her they'd accepted her presence.

"On our way home from the mission we ran into some Suna shinobi, yeah," Deidara explained, glaring down at the torn shirt in his hands. "One of the bastards grabbed me so hard that my shirt fucking ripped right off."

"Well shit, I'd like to me that guy," Skylar mumbled jokingly but with prominent dirty intent, and across from her Konan snorted and accidently started choking on her ice cream.

"Oh my god!" Skylar exclaimed while laughing and immediately ran around the table to help her. However, by the time she'd gotten there Konan had already recovered from the accident and was laughing as well. To the side…Deidara and Sasori were looking at the two as if they were insane.

It was when Sasori spoke a minute later that the two females were broken from their laughing fit.

"Did you cook again, Skylar?" he asked, drawn to the stove where the cooling vegetables and rice sat.

"Yeah, Konan and I did," Skylar said, nodding her head, and Sasori hummed, leaning in to the vegetables. He sniffed and raised both of his eyebrows, seeming surprised, before grabbing a plate from the cupboard.

As the puppeteer was serving himself a plate, Deidara waltz back into the room, adjusting the new top he'd just put on. As he passed Skylar on his way towards the stove he lightly punched her on the side of the head.

"Ow!" she exclaimed. Narrowing her eyes as she began rubbing the spot he'd hit, she looked over to him. "What was that for?"

"That comment you made earlier, yeah," he responded with a small smirk, and Skylar sheepishly froze.

"You heard that?"

"Mhmm," he replied amusedly, finding it funny the way her cheeks started to redden. Sasori, actually, found it quite funny as well.

"Well, I suppose you _are _a growing girl," the puppeteer commented quietly as he walked over and took a seat beside Skylar. Her face reddened more, and she instinctively smacked his arm.

"What the hell does that mean?" she hissed, and Sasori feigned innocence, tilting his head to the side.

"It natural for girls your age to feel aro—"

"Both of you!—stop teasing her," Konan commanded sternly, and in sync the two males sighed.

"Fine," Deidara grumbled, sitting next to the blue haired female and digging into his plate of food. Satisfied, Konan stood and grabbed both her and Skylar's plates, taking them over to the sink.

"So, what actually happened with those ninja?" Skylar questioned sincerely, and Sasori responded.

"We took care of them."

Skylar nodded slowly. She should've honestly respected such a response from them, because while she personally felt that the Akatsuki weren't too bad, that didn't mean that they _weren't_ bad—in a good vs evil kind of sense, that is. They still killed people, and were trying to take over the world, but…for the time being she'd try not to think about that too much.

After a minute of silence, Skylar stood from her seat and moved to help Konan pack up the remaining food.

Both females were sure that the other guys would want some when they returned.

So, they packed the rice and vegetables into containers, shoved them into the fridge, and then got to work on washing all of the pans and dishes they'd used. However, as they were working, Skylar accidently picked up one of the knives they'd used by the wrong end.

"Ow! Shit…," she cursed and held up her hand. Though, before she could even get a good look to see where the blood on her hand was coming from, some had stolen her hand from her.

"You idiot," Sasori spoke, his hands gently cradling hers and his narrowed brown eyes surveyed the damage. There was a cut running straight across her palm—right across the skin that was finally starting to heal after her mishap while she'd been out with Hidan and Kakuzu last week.

Without saying anything, Sasori suddenly dragged her to the edge of the kitchen and opened a drawer, pulling out of roll of bandages.

"Should I be concerned as to why you have a drawer full of medical supplies in the kitchen?" Skylar question, still wincing in pain, and from his place at the kitchen table, Deidara responded with his mouth full.

"We're ninja—what do you expect, yeah?"

"Also, most of us aren't skilled cooks," Konan added in quietly.

"Hey!" Deidara shouted defensively, and, raising an eyebrow, Konan looked over at him.

"I never mentioned you, Deidara."

"Oh…," the blond realized sheepishly, and off to the side Skylar snickered.

"Idiot—ow! Hey!" she yelled, glaring up at Sasori. He'd just squeezed her hurt hand! "Aren't you supposed to enjoy it when people make fun of your partner?!"

"Hmmm…well, I suppose you're right," he admitted with a small smirk as he began to wrap her palm.

"Deidara—you're a terrible cook."

"Fuck. Off. Danna."

Both Skylar and Sasori rolled their eyes.

After a minute, the puppeteer finished wrapping Skylar's hand and replaced the bandages in the drawer while Skylar surveyed his work. As she should've expected—it was flawless—likely because he'd done it a million times by now.

"_Well_," Skylar spoke up after a few seconds, attracting their attention. "I guess I should probably be leaving soon…"

"Alright," Sasori easily agreed, beginning to unbutton his cloak.

"Wait!" Deidara interjected, jumping up from his seat. "Danna you already got to kill her once! It should be my turn!"

Rolling his eyes, and before Skylar could even laugh at their petty argument, Sasori said, "shut up, brat," and then shot his stomach coil out at her. She was gone in an instant, suddenly back on her couch at home.

Sighing, Skylar pushed herself up before suddenly remembering her hand. Immediately she lifted it, trying to take the pressure off of it, but…it…didn't really hurt.

Tentatively, Skylar reached down and tugged the bandages loose, allowing them to fall off of her hand.

There was…just a tiny scab. No fresh blood, no cut…just a small scab that indicated she'd ever been hurt. It was…the type of scab you got after a week of healing at least.

"What the _fuck_?" Skylar spoke, honestly dumbfounded. What the hell was going on?! She fell and hurt her palms with Hidan and Kakuzu and that had taken over a week to scab up and heal! And now—after two minutes—the cut on her hand was nearly gone and healed already.

Was there some secret to that fortune cookie that she didn't know about? Or was she just going insane?

"This is freaky…," she grumbled, standing up, and headed to the bathroom—in need of a warm shower to clear her mind.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey guys, sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I had a bit of a brain fart (which sucks because I had optimal time to write during the last two weeks since it's break). Though, I came back from spending the night at my cousins today and decided that I'd definitely get this done. So...here you go!<br>**

**I hope you all had a good Christmas! Or...any other holiday! And hey! It's 2015!**

**I am SO looking forward to this year, you have no idea. In 5 months: I leave high school forever. In 6 months: I graduate. In 7 months: I turn 18. And in 9 months: I start college.**

**So much is happening this year. And I'm really looking forward to it.**

**Also, the college I'm going to offers a class centered around Harry Potter...so...you can only guess what class I'll be taking.**

**Now...I don't have much more to say, and I have eaten dinner yer despite the fact that it's almost 9...so, maybe I'll go and do that now.**

**Have a good night/day! I'll try and update as soon as I can, and thanks for all the support! I really appreciate it you guys!  
><strong>

**Love you!**

**Please Review!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Normal POV**

For once, it wasn't a boring or depressing day.

When Skylar walked into her home, she still had her backpack on her shoulders despite the fact that it was already 6 o'clock. She'd stayed at school late to help with a project she'd been assigned in Literature, and then had decided to stop at Panera on her way home with a few friends.

It was that one day a month she actually had a social life and did things with other people—and, therefore, she felt quite happy.

Dropping her bag not-too-gently onto the kitchen floor, Skylar started towards the family room but jolted in shock when a dark blur suddenly jumped onto the counter in front of her.

Black fur, bright orange eyes…it was a cat. A cat that she was well acquainted with too.

"Fucking Atticus…," Skylar cursed, but nonetheless walked forward and reached towards the cat. It allowed her one stroke over its fur before Atticus lashed out at her with his claws, catching the edge of the skin on her elbow briefly.

"Yeah, I missed you too dickbag," she retorted, snarling at it, before she stepped into the living room and walked up to the TV. There was a note tapped to the screen, and gently Skylar pulled it off before reading it.

_**Yo,**_

_**I got a new roommate who's allergic to cats. Sorry not sorry.**_

_**Make sure to feed him. I don't want my cat dead.**_

_**I'll be sure to come and visit him. Oh, and you too I guess. Jk, I'll treat you to IHOP when I come back.**_

_**Thanks.**_

_**-Dom.**_

Skylar blinked and then crumpled the paper up, throwing it into a garbage can on the floor a little ways away.

Her brother always did this to her. He wasn't supposed to have cats in his dorm to begin with, yet somehow every year he managed to sneak Atticus in for a little while before they threatened him to make the cat leave. That's when Atticus always ended up back with her in their actual house, acting like he owned the place.

Turning, Skylar stared at said cat still perched on the edge of the counter. He was sitting squarely, staring at her with wide, yet stern eyes. He looked like a king overlooking a peasant.

Skylar spoke nothing to the cat, only frowning at it, before she turned and walked over to the couch. Immediately she settled into the cushions and then pulled out her phone to check Twitter and Tumblr amongst other things. However, after a couple of minutes she felt the couch bend under the weight of something else, and when she looked down Skylar saw Atticus stalking towards her.

"Goddamit," she said, knowing what was coming, and a moment later the cat started to knead into her hip.

"Ow, ow, ow," she said, the feeling of his cat paws digging into her bones not at all pleasant. Though, after a moment Atticus finally settled down, somehow managing to balance himself on her hip even though she was lying sideways…

"Well…," Skylar spoke, knowing now that if she moved the cat wouldn't be happy at all. Atticus didn't like to be disturbed when he was cozy, and Skylar really didn't want to get anymore scars than she had so…

Speaking of scars…

Skylar glanced down at her hands, images of tripping on her trip with Hidan and Kakuzu popping into her head. It'd been about three weeks since then, and no longer were her hands full of scabs or tender skin. Her palms had healed completely, and she was grateful they had.

'Well, I suppose it's time to go back,' Skylar thought to herself and remained still, shutting her eyes as Atticus began to purr quietly. He was clearly drifting off as well.

Hopefully by the time Skylar got back Atticus would have awoken or moved off of her, and then she'd be free to get up a do whatever.

—but not homework! Fuck homework…

* * *

><p>It was after a fairly quick period of time when Skylar felt herself drop an inch or two onto the cold floor of the Akatsuki base. She placed her hands on the rocky surface, preparing to push herself up, but as she did she noticed that…she felt heavier than normal.<p>

Blinking, Skylar paused and looked down, her heart stopping when she noticed that there was a black ball of fur still curled up on her hip.

_Atticus had come with her._

"Oh, _shit_!" she hissed, but apparently she wasn't quiet enough because Atticus's ear perked up. Immediately the cat's head popped up as well, and after looking around, not knowing where he was, and deciding to be a dick, Atticus jumped up and sped down the hall.

"Atticus!" Skylar called after him, scrambling up. Though, he was already out of sight.

"_Fuck_," she cursed, and jogged towards the bases living room.

If the others found the cat without knowing about it…she didn't know what they'd do—kill him, maybe. And besides that, Atticus could easily get killed in this base with all the traps the Akatsuki always had set. And while Skylar wasn't exactly best friends with her brother's cat she didn't want to have to explain to him later on why his cat had just…disappeared.

When Skylar ran into the living room, immediately the males littering the couches looked up. They were engaged in a game, surprisingly—but on their off days what better did they have to do?—so they expected her to laugh at them and then join in—or something along those lines…but she didn't. In fact, she actually looked quite frazzled and scared.

"Is something wrong?" Itachi questioned, his brow furrowed, and Skylar nodded, taking in a much needed breath.

"Uh, yeah…I, uh…help me find my cat?"

"What?" Sasori said, surprised, as the other guys all paused in confusion as well.

"My cat," Skylar clarified. "Well—my brother's cat—it…accidentally came here with me…and then it ran away. Soooo…before it dies somewhere in your dangerous as shit base, do you think you could help me find him?"

"You brought a fucking _cat _with you?!" Hidan yelled at her, incredulous. Skylar held up her hands defensively.

"I didn't mean too! He fell asleep on me and just…came!"

Hidan opened his mouth to curse her out for being a complete idiot, but luckily before he could Itachi intervened.

"I'll help you," he volunteered politely, standing up from his seat on the couch. Sasori, Deidara and Kisame quickly followed suit, declaring that they'd lend a hand as well. Hidan remained in his seat for a minute, his arms crossed and not looking happy, before he finally sighed loudly and stood to join them.

"So, what should we do, yeah?" Deidara questioned, glancing at Skylar. The girl paused for a couple seconds, thinking.

"Well…his name is 'Atticus' so you can call out to him, but I don't know if he'll come. He's honestly an asshole, so if you do find him he'll probably look at you like you're crazy…so don't feel bad if you need to use a little force. Just don't…break him, alright? I want him back alive…"

"Got it," Kisame assured her with a grin. He and Itachi then split off, walking down the hall, and right after them followed Deidara and Sasori. Hidan moved to follow after them, reaching for his scythe, but Skylar stopped him.

"No scythe," she told him, glaring, and he glared back. However, after a moment he sighed again and simply grabbed her instead, dragging her down the hall with him.

"You're a pain in the ass," he told her bluntly, and after blinking in surprise, Skylar couldn't help but smirk.

"Thanks," she said, and Hidan quietly cursed, releasing her. The two continued up the hall until it split, and then Hidan took charge and led her down towards his and Kakuzu's bedrooms. Since the doors to all the rooms in the hallway were closed, both Hidan and Skylar doubted that Atticus had somehow managed to wiggle his way in. After all, they likely would've been alerted by some trap or alarm anyway.

"I still can't believe you brought a fucking cat with you," Hidan grumbled under his breath, his narrowed maroon eyes scanning the dark hall.

"I told you it wasn't on purpose!" Skylar defended quietly. "And besides that, you'd probably like the cat, Hidan."

Said man raised an eyebrow in brief surprise, but didn't seem impressed.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Skylar replied innocently. "Like you, he enjoys causing misery to others, enjoys inflicting pain, and also thinks that he's the best thing that ever happened to anyone."

Thankfully, instead of turning to hit her Hidan just snorted a half-amused laugh and continued walking. Skylar couldn't help but a crack a smile in relief; however, a moment later that smile disappeared when her face smashed into Hidan's back.

"Ow…," she mumbled, rubbing her now sore face as she glared up at the man who had suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Hidan, you—!"

"Shh!" he said and smacked a hand over her mouth. Skylar immediately froze, looking cross-eyed down at the hand hushing her. She debated sticking her tongue out to get him off, but immediately thought against it when she realized that this was _Hidan, _and only Jashin knew what kind of substances Hidan stained his skin with…

"Did you hear that?"

For a moment, Skylar's irritated mind paused, and she listened to what Hidan was saying. Slowly, the Jashinist removed his hand from her mouth once he was sure she was quiet, and together the two listened for whatever it was Hidan had heard before.

After a couple of second both froze when they saw a tiny shift in the shadows ahead of them. Consciously, Hidan tensed into a defensive stance and Skylar scooted behind him a little bit. However, the instant that Hidan took a step forward the shadow they'd seen shot out of the darkness and, faster than expected, caught them both off guard.

"OH, SHIT!" Hidan cursed when claws swiped at him, and he stumbled backwards, taking Skylar down with him. The tiny yell she emitted on the way to the ground alerted Hidan to the fact that he was likely going to crush her, and at the last minute he managed to flip around.

"You're cat is the fucking devil," was the first thing Hidan spoke, not seeming to care that he was caging Skylar against the ground, his face a mere foot from hers.

"I pretty much told you he was an asshole," Skylar responded breathlessly, still regaining her bearings.

"Skylar, Hidan!"

Suddenly Deidara and Sasori rounded into the hall, jogging towards them.

"Hey, are you guys, oka—?" Deidara started, but stopped when he noticed their position on the ground. Immediately he slowed to a stop, Sasori doing the same, and both sighed agitatedly.

"You're trying to get some at a time like this, yeah?" Deidara said, unimpressed and a little pissed off. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Scoffing, Hidan finally pushed himself up, getting off of Skylar, and Sasori walked over to help said female up. Gratefully Skylar took the hand Sasori offered to her and regained her balance.

"Trust me, Deidara," she mumbled quietly once she was closer to the blond. "He wouldn't be getting any from me anyway."

"Oi!" Hidan yelled, apparently having overheard, and Deidara snorted a laugh. Hidan glared at her in offense, but Skylar just shrugged. The truth was the truth, after all.

Sasori rolled his eyes at Hidan's fragile ego, but then paused.

"You're bleeding," he stated, catching their attention, and then motioned to Hidan's face. The Jashinist blinked in surprise and then lifted his hand, running it along the three tiny scratches lining his cheek.

"I…am going to murder your fucking cat," he said, face turning dark, and Skylar paled when she saw that he was 99% serious.

"No! Nope!" she said and then grabbed Deidara and Sasori by their wrists, quickly dragging them up the hall with her while Hidan began to fume in anger. She _really _needed to find Atticus before he got murdered…

"Oops," Skylar quietly realized a moment later when she felt her hands still holding onto Deidara and Sasori. Immediately she released the two, but not before her hand suddenly became wet.

"Uhh, my bad, un," Deidara said apologetically, pulling back his hand and looking at it awkwardly. Skylar just rolled her eyes.

"It's fine," she responded with a smirk, and Deidara looked at her in confusion. Usually when girls were licked by his hands—which, by the way, had a mind of their own—they'd freak out and run, but…Skylar didn't.

Well…Skylar knew all about them though, and Deidara supposed that he should've been used to that fact. She'd be more surprised if his Kekkei Genkai disappeared rather than finding out that it was actually there.

"Hey," Kisame's voice suddenly spoke out as the three entered the living room. He and Itachi were standing by the couches, empty handed.

"We thought we saw something running in the hallway when we were walking back, so we tried to follow after it, but when we got here we couldn't find anything."

"Yeah, it was probably Atticus running away from Hidan and I," Skylar replied with a sigh, running a hand through her hair. "We found him in one of the halls but he scratched Hidan and ran away."

"I see," Itachi said contemplatively, glancing around the room with Sharingan lit eyes. "We _did _see your cat come down this hall, however, so he's got to be around here somewhere…"

"_Meow!"_

Immediately all five froze. Turning slowly, the all looked into the kitchen and took note of the black cat casually lounging on top of their cabinets. He was staring at them all with innocent orange eyes, his head tilted to the side.

"He…seems kind of innocent…yet smug," Kisame commented, raising an eyebrow at the feline, and Skylar snorted a laugh.

"Tell me about it. My brother's had Atticus since he started college 3 years ago, and every time I see him he acts like he's the king of the castle and has done nothing wrong…"

"Well, let's get him," Sasori said, taking charge, but the minute he took a step forward Atticus was up. His tail was straight and his bright eyes were narrowed. He was ready to pounce and then run again at any moment.

And Skylar knew that if he was provoked, he'd definitely run.

But…there was also no way _not _to provoke him…so…she'd just have to take one for the team. After all, she'd brought the cat here with her, so it was her responsibility to get it back.

"Alright, listen," Skylar started slowly, attracting the four male's attention. "I'm gonna walk up to Atticus, and he's gonna claw me. After he claws me he's gonna run away, so before he gets out of the room I need one of you to grab him."

"You're gonna just sacrifice yourself like that?" Kisame said, surprised, and Skylar shrugged.

"What about after we catch him?" Sasori continued, curious, and Skylar paused.

"I…suppose that one of you can hand him back to me and then…kill me while I'm holding him? Hopefully that'll work…"

"Well, you did come here when he was touching you, so if I had to guess I'd say that it works the same way," Itachi hypothesized, and Skylar bobbed her head gratefully. She really didn't want Atticus to get killed during all of this…even if he was a son of a bitch.

"Alright," Skylar spoke determinedly and then took a step forward, heading into the kitchen. Atticus perked up more, his tail beginning to sway in excitement because he actually _liked _shit like this.

"C'mere asswipe," Skylar said as she approached and reached down, rolling up one of her sleeves. Even from the background the guys could see a few tiny scars that the cat had likely inflicted before.

Holding up her now uncovered arm, Skylar approached Atticus. She tensed when she saw him prepare to jump, and braced herself for pain. Said pain came a moment later when the cat sprung at her. His claws dug into her arm painfully on his way to the ground, and the minute he was on the floor, he _ran._

"Shit!" Deidara cursed as the guys sprang into action, taken off guard by how fast the feline was. They all dove and chased, but when they finally regained their bearings…all were empty handed.

"Well…fuck," Kisame said simply, and Skylar groaned, anger filling her head.

"Come here," Sasori instructed after a moment, motioning to one of the bar stools, and without arguing Skylar went. As she sat, Sasori walked over to the drawer filled with medical supplies and pulled out the roll of bandages he'd used on her when she'd been there the week before.

"Dominic just isn't going to get his cat back," Skylar rambled crossly, holding still as Sasori started to wrap the white bandage around her lightly bleeding arm. "I'm just gonna tell him that the bastard ran away and decided not to come back. Or that he was so stuck up that his ego exploded his head and he just—"

"Everyone~! Tobi just found this cute kitty at the base enterance!"

Blinking, the five occupants of the room turned to find Zetsu and Tobi standing in doorway to the _other _hall—the one that lead from the base enterance. In Tobi's arms was none other the Atticus, the feline surprisingly being held contently.

Skylar narrowed her eyes at the feline, looking from Tobi's orange mask to the orange eyes of Atticus.

Evil beings attracted, she supposed, whether it was a mad man and a cat, or anything else.

"That's Skylar's cat, yeah," Deidara explained, perking the masked man's attention.

"It's not mine…"

"She accidently brought it here with her," Kisame continued with his typical shark-like grin.

"It's not even my cat!"

"AWWW! Well, what's this cute little kitty's name?!" Tobi questioned, holding Atticus lovingly as he expectantly looked over to Skylar.

"Atticus," she responded begrudgingly as Sasori finished bandaging her. Tobi immediately gasped, holding Atticus up to his face.

"Well, _Atticus,_ aren't you just the cutest thing ever!"

The five in the room who had experienced the cat's wrath before all stared, unimpressed while Tobi cuddled the cat with all his might. Zetsu, on the other hand, watched the sight bemused and then left the room without a word.

Apparently the cat wasn't worth his time, and Skylar didn't blame him. She was about ready to be done with Atticus too.

"Speaking of the cat," Skylar started and then glanced around the four Akatsuki members who weren't Tobi. They got her jist, and Skylar locked eyes with Kisame.

"You're probably my best bet," she said, and Kisame nodded, walking over to where he'd left Samehada leaning against the wall earlier on. He picked the gigantic sword up and posed it over his shoulder, waiting patiently for Skylar to get into position.

Standing from the stool, Skylar took a few steps towards Tobi, smiling fakely.

"Hey Tobi, I'm sorry but I gotta get back, and I need Atticus to come with me…"

"Oh, alright…," Tobi said, suddenly sad, and extended Atticus out towards her. Skylar hesitantly took the cat, waiting for it to claw at her again…but it didn't. Instead the feline just stared at her innocently, not looking like he was going to put up a fight anymore.

"You're an asshole," she told him seriously, and then turned back to look at Kisame. She nodded at him, and as he prepared himself, she sent a smile to Deidara, Sasori, and Itachi.

"Thanks for your help guys—I'll see you next time."

"See you, yeah," Deidara responded friendlily, sending her a small smile in response, and a second later Kisame lifted his sword. He hit her back, and, thankfully, once Skylar had disappeared there was no dead cat in her place.

"Thank god," Deidara breathed quietly, and Sasori and Itachi nodded in silent agreement. Kisame simply laughed off his worry, and started laughing even harder when a moment later Hidan stormed into the room, a kunai in his grasp and three scratches on his cheek.

"Where's that damn cat?!" He screamed, clearly pissed, and Deidara snorted while Itachi and Sasori cracked a smirk.

"You're a little late, yeah."

* * *

><p>"You're a fucking asshole," Skylar deadpanned when she woke up on her couch, Atticus immediately jumping off of her and strolling away. Sighing, she pushed herself up and moved to get some water, exhausted despite the fact that she'd just 'napped'.<p>

A little while later, Skylar decided to take a shower and headed into the bathroom. She stripped down and turned the water on, and then looked at the newly wrapped bandage on her arm. Skylar really didn't want to ruin Sasori's perfect work, but…she didn't want soggy bandages either.

Sighing again, Skylar began to loosen the bandage and pull it off. She was sure the warm water would sting her fresh scratches but—…there were none.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" she yelled, seriously tired of whatever voodoo shit was happening every time she went to the Akatsuki base. Every time she came back her injuries were healed! But then there was also that one time her hands _hadn't _healed and _what the fuck._

_What was going on?_

Calming herself, Skylar decided to debate all this later, and instead allowed the warm shower water to wash her worries away. She'd figure it out eventually.

* * *

><p><strong>Yo! I sacrificed my AP Lit homework to write this, so enjoy it lol. Actually, I've got the weekend to do it, but I'm so fucking busy this weekend that...I don't even know. I'll get it done at some point. <strong>

**Anyway, I HAD A SNOW DAY TODAY. FUCK YEAH. Though, to be precise it was a 'cold day' because the wind chill was -25 degrees. It was a miracle the district gave us the day off though, because last year they made some outrageous decisions regarding what days to _not _cancel school in the winter...I won't get into that though, because I could rant all day.**

**ALSO, I recently realized how much fucking Roosterteeth/Achievement Hunter fanfiction there is out there and...FUCK. I'm obsessed. I will be reading it all for the next week, and will be discovering all the ships I never knew that I needed. Ugh, oh my god...**

**Well...this was my gift to you guys, and you can thank that really nice Raywood fic I read lol. It inspired me to write more, and this chapter is what came of it. But, like I said, I'll be busy this weekend, so don't expect another update for a little while. Tomorrow after school I'm heading up north with my church for a retreat, but I'm driving myself up instead of taking the bus because I have to come back early for another event I'm required to attend for Orchestra...even though don't want to attend it lol. And then...there's homework.**

**I just feel so busy, but in the end I'll get it done. Probably.**

**Anyway, thank you guys all so much for all of your support. I'm shocked by all the favorites and follows since we're only 7 chapters in, but thank you all bunches. **

**Until next time. **

**Please Review!**

**PS: I put a new poll up! Feel free to go and take it, but it's nothing too important, I'm just curious :)**


	8. Chapter 7

**Normal POV**

"Hi, Grandma," A little girl said, walking up to the old woman who was resting on the edge of her deck. She was over looking her backyard peacefully, but paused to smile at her 10 year old granddaughter, placing a hand lovingly on her blonde head.

"Hello Danielle," the grandmother responded, and after a minute the girl spoke again.

"Hey, grandma, where are—?"

"Get back here Paul!"

"Skylar noooooo!"

At that moment Skylar ran out into the large backyard, chasing a tall blond haired male. Like her, he was a high school senior—but he was also her cousin.

"Skylar, don't hurt him!" Another male voice called jokingly and wandered into view. Dark brown hair and gray eyes—it was Dominic. Though, a moment later another male walked into sight as well. He was so tall his head nearly hit the trellis arch as he strut, and, along with Dominic, he had a beer in his hand.

"I don't know, dude, I think Paul needs to get beat up. He's been annoying me lately," another one of Skylar's cousin's, Andy, stated. He was glaring at his brother—Paul—who was now being tackled to the ground by Skylar as she laughed happily.

Back on the deck, Danielle suddenly exclaimed, "Sorry," her eyes going wide in excitement, and she ran down the steps of the deck before sprinting to Skylar and Paul. She immediately jumped into the fray, helping Skylar tackle the male larger than them to the thick grass. Their grandmother simply laughed, smiling peacefully as she watched her grandchildren have a good time.

She'd asked them over today to help her out with some yard work. The house was so big, and she lived alone now, so having her grandkids come out and help her was a treat—especially since they were all busy with school and whatnot.

"Hey, you youngsters!" she called after a little while, slowly easing out of her seat. Skylar paused in wrestling Paul, and all five grandchildren looked over at her.

"To thank you for all your hard work today, how about we order a pizza? How does that sound?"

"Heck yeah!" Paul exclaimed, never one to turn down food, and shoved Skylar off of him. She hit the ground with a tiny plop, but immediately chased after him—half angry and half hungry. Dominic and Andy grinned in excitement as well, sharing a toast and downing their beers before following after the two, making sure to grab Danielle—who had been distracted by collecting sticks for the fire they were planning to have later on—on their way.

And so, together with their grandmother they all ordered a feast of pizza. When the order was ready Andy took Paul with him to go get it, while Dominic and Skylar help their grandmother set the table. Once the two males were back with the food everyone dug in, and after digesting for a few hours the kids all gathered to make a bonfire. They set up the sticks and newspaper, got out the s'mores supplies, and then lit it up. It was ten before the fire finally turned into a pile of cooling ashes, and, according to their grandmother, it was much too late to let them all drive home.

So, the kids packed everything up, returned to the house, and divided the beds and couches for the night. Danielle, the youngest, took the bed in the kid's room. Somehow, Skylar managed to convince Dominic to let her sleep with him in the queen bed in the spare room, and Andy and Paul agreed to take the two couches in the living room.

"Don't mess with me in my sleep," Skylar told Dominic seriously as she settled into bed beside him, glaring at him warningly. The college student simply rolled his eyes in response, continuing to flick through his twitter feed without looking at her.

"I won't," he finally said as Skylar settled down, and she silently became content, pulling out her own phone as well. Like brother like sister, the two siblings played around on their phones before their batteries were beginning to die; then, finally, they turned in for the night.

* * *

><p>Skylar found herself lying on a metal floor. The floor was damp and cold, and there was barely any light anywhere. There were no doors or windows in the hall she was in and…the entire area seemed dark and depressing.<p>

Skylar began to wonder if she was in a dream, because never before had she seen a place like this.

Though…if she was in the middle of a dream, then it was certainly a lucid one, because she was pretty self-aware at the moment…

Oh well, she decided, and pried herself from the ground, frowning when she found that her pants had become wet with water. In fact…she swore that she heard the pitter-patter of rain nearby.

Quizzical, Skylar scuttled up the hallway, trying to find her place. When she reached the end of the hall, she found that it split two ways, and decided to go left. That hallway, of course, split in two directions as well, and once again Skylar decided to go left, hearing the rain become louder.

It was a moment later that she saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and hurried forward a little faster than she'd previously been going. A light breeze started to push against her as she got closer, her feet echoing against the metal floor and splashing through puddles.

And then she was on a balcony…and she was amazed.

All around her there were tall, dark buildings. They were covered in pipes and worn out metal, and all of the buildings stretched for miles and miles, touching the gray horizon.

Above her were swirling storm clouds, but no storm. It was simply drizzling at the moment, but Skylar could see that there was a storm brewing—as if the clouds were growing darker and angrier every moment.

Amazed, Skylar remained staring, brushing her hair out of her eyes and not caring if, at the moment, she was cold standing there in only her pajamas. The rain hitting the metallic buildings was an entrancing sound, and, for some reason, Skylar felt like if she had a good book (or good fluff fanfiction) with her—this would be the perfect place for her to read.

"Wow…," she breathed after another minute, turning her eyes up to the clouds as they started to growl with warning, turning grayer by the second.

…and that was when Skylar noticed the quick taps on the metal floor behind her, coming closer and closer and—

Turning on her heel, Skylar took a step back in fear and bumped against the tiny railing behind her. Her eyes had just enough time to focus on a large, orange-haired figure sprinting near her—glistening kunai in hand—before she somehow managed to slip…and fall past the guard rail.

Her throat constricted as she watched the building fall away from her, her body falling in time with the trickling rain as the clouds cracked with thunder and lightning.

A brief consideration of death flashed through her mind before her eyes focused on the balcony she was getting farther and farther away from, watching the orange-haired figure lean over to watch her fall.

…and then Skylar realized that the building looked vaguely familiar, and so did the town and the orange hair of her assailant, and—

Her body her body smacked into a lower balcony.

* * *

><p>Dominic was awoken from his sleep by a panicked gasp beside him, and then the bed creaking and then something roughly ramming into the nearby dresser.<p>

"Jesus Christ!" He hissed, flying out of bed and making a break for the light switch. He hit it a moment later, blinding the room with light, but his strained eyes could still make out his sister's stiff form on the ground next to the dresser.

"…sorry," she breathed, eyes wide and respiratory rate elevated. Dominic just stared at her, not sure what to say, before he sighed.

"You…," he started tiredly, rubbing his eyes as he shuffled back over to the bed. He sat on the warm mattress where he'd been sleeping before, and glanced down at Skylar. Once she seemed calm enough, he raised an eyebrow, asking—

"Bad dream?"

"Something like that," Skylar replied with a large sigh and heaved herself up. She stumbled over to the light switch, flicked it off, and then returned to her side of the bed. The two siblings remained silent for a minute before Dominic spoke up again.

"You okay?"

"…yeah," Skylar replied after a moment, her brain distracted by her thoughts, and she re-snuggled into the sheets. "Sorry."

"No worries," Dom assured her quickly, and she felt the bed creak and bend as he got back into a comfortable position as well. Within a minute, his quiet snores filled the room…but Skylar still laid there, eyes wide open.

What had just happened to her…she wasn't exactly sure if it had been a dream or not. However, she knew one thing:

That place she'd gone to…it had looked a lot like Ame.

* * *

><p>Nagato was used to being alone. He had his six paths, and sometimes Konan when she wasn't out on missions, but otherwise he remained in the Ame base—alone. He didn't mind it at times, because he had things to do and world domination to plan, but sometimes he got tired of it.<p>

Loneliness was a natural human feeling, he supposed, but either way he wasn't happy about having it.

He was the leader. He needed to be rock-solid in every way.

And so he was.

_Especially_ when he felt a strange presence land in his base one day. Without hesitation, he deployed one of his six-paths, sending them around the building in a search for whatever it was that had caught his attention. He didn't sense any chakra signature, or any deadly intent…but just to be sure he had to check it out.

After all, no one ever dared come near his Ame base. It was his alone—he was the leader of the Rain village—and invading his privacy was an instant death wish.

Though…it seemed that someone had one, because his Path had just detected the sound of feet padding around the hallways.

Now on high alert, Nagato but the Path into battle mode and sent them flying. He would take care of the intruder swiftly—though he didn't promise to make it painless.

After taking a few turns and following the sound of where the steps had lead, the Path flew onto a balcony outside. There was a girl, there, staring off into the distance, and when she suddenly became alerted that someone was there with her she jumped around. Her multi-colored eyes widened and she staggered back, clearly caught off guard, but before Nagato could bring himself to process that the female he was seeing was Skylar, she slipped backwards and fell from the balcony.

A tiny piece of him told him to jump after her, however, a bigger part of him reminded him that Skylar only returned to her world when she died, so instead he just walked forward and watched passively as she fell. A couple seconds in, her body bounced against a lower part of the building, and she suddenly disappeared.

The Path remained staring at where she'd evaporated, blank faced, before Nagato turned it around and commanded it back into the base.

Skylar's appearance had caught him off guard.

After all—thus far she'd only appeared in their other base. He hadn't even known that is was possible for her to appear in Ame…

He would have to alert the others about the discovery as well.

* * *

><p>Skylar hated to admit it, but last night she had been scared to sleep a second time. Instead she'd just lied in bed until about 3AM, before she'd gotten up and wandered around the house. Since her cousins were sleeping in the living room, she instead tiptoed into the room they'd dubbed the "game-room". It was a tiny room off the side of the kitchen that luckily had a door to shut it off, so Skylar stepped inside and closed herself in, trying to be as quiet as possible.<p>

She dug the old Nintendo 64 out from under the TV and put in Mario Kart 64. She distracted herself with that for three hours before the door behind her suddenly creaked open. Jumping, Skylar whipped her head to see who had walked in and found Dominic standing there.

"Are you okay?" he said seriously, scared by the fear he saw on her face. He walked forward and unraveled one of the remaining controllers, plugging it into the console next to Skylar's.

"I woke up and you weren't there."

"Well…," Skylar started and restarted the game, switching over to two-player mode. She wasn't going to lie to him since he was being genuine for once.

"That dream kinda scared me. I get the feeling that when I get home it'll be better…so…"

"Alright," Dominic agreed and picked Yoshi while Skylar placed her claim on Toad. "How are you gonna make it home though?"

Skylar shrugged nonchalantly. "Drink some Mountain Dew with breakfast? Hype up on caffeine? I'll make it."

"Sounds like a plan," Dom gave in, and the two started their race.

A couple hours later, after drinking two cans of Dr Pepper had having a bowl of cereal, Skylar was ready to go. Paul, Andy, Danielle and Derrick had packed up their things as well, and now all of them were preparing to head home.

"Bye Grandma!" They all called, exiting through the garage, and after getting an affirming "goodbye dears!" from their grandmother they all split off to their cars. Dominic got in his, heading back north towards college. Paul and Andy hopped into their vehicle with Danielle in their backseat, heading East to take the girl home to their Aunt before they'd come back West to their own. And then Skylar got in her car, heading back South to her home as well.

It took about 40 minutes and a little bit of speeding (but that's how she always drove) before she pulled into her driveway and dragged herself inside. Immediately after setting her keys down she collapsed onto the couch—and it didn't take more than a minute before sleep engulfed her.

* * *

><p>Skylar felt her butt hit the ground—a stone, only semi-cold, and not damp ground. When she focused on her surrounding, she was relieved to see that it was the Akatsuki base she knew—the one uncharacteristically surrounded by a field of pretty flowers and a healthy green forest.<p>

Huffing, Skylar pushed herself onto her feet, however, before she could even take a step her world was suddenly flipped upside down, and she found herself on someone's shoulder. After a moment she realized that 'someone' was Deidara, and he was quickly walking her towards the living room with his hand gripping around her torso.

"Am I in trouble?" Skylar asked, a little scared when she got a peak at his stern face.

"Not exactly," Deidara responded, but there was an edge to his voice that Skylar couldn't quite place.

…she had a feeling that this was about what had happened last night…

A minute later they emerged into the living room and without stopped Deidara stepped up to the couch and dropped her down. As she pulled herself up into place Deidara took the open spot beside her and suddenly Skylar found herself trapped between Sasori and Deidara. Across from them was Itachi and Kisame, and Kakuzu and Hidan were lounging against the nearby wall as well.

"…so I _am _in trouble," Skylar stated hesitantly, glancing around at them wearily.

"No," Kisame assured her with a small chuckle, and crossed his arms. He flashed her a small grin. "However, so far we've never heard of you popping into any base but this one—"

"And we're all wondering what the fuck you did," Hidan finished off, staring at her with narrowed eyes.

Skylar sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Listen guys…I'm not really sure what happened but if I had to guess I'd say that it was because I slept in a place that wasn't typical _and _I was pretty far from where I usually fall asleep."

"And where was it that you fell asleep last night?" Itachi asked, though she could tell he was trying to be polite about it. He didn't seem as peeved as the others did about the situation.

"My grandmother's house," Skylar explained. "I went there to help her yesterday and spent the night since it's a good ways away from my house. After I fell asleep I wasn't sure if I was in a dream or not so I wandered around, and just before I died I noticed that one of Pein's Six-Paths is who had come after me…"

"Wait, so you died without Pein killing you, yeah?" Deidara said, looking at her in surprise. "How did you manage that?"

Skylar sighed.

"Well…I kind fell out of the building and went…_splat._"

"How in the fuck?" Hidan laughed, and Skylar waved her hands in the air, trying to brush away the topic of her coward-like death.

"You know—that doesn't really matter!" she said. "What _does _matter is the fact that I can apparently appear in other bases besides this one depending on where I'm located when I'm sleeping."

"So we _think_," Kakuzu wisely put in, voicing his input in the conversation for the first time, and Itachi nodded in agreement.

"Then how do we prove our theory?"

"Send her back to her world, have her go somewhere far away, and take a nap," Sasori casually suggested, and when Skylar sent him a disbelieving look, he shrugged.

"Do you not think that to be a viable option?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Then off you go!" Hidan exclaimed happily, and pulled a rod from his cloak. He poised the weapon towards Skylar, but before it could hit her Skylar was suddenly pulled out of the way. She then found herself in Kisame's grasp, the sharkman shielding her at his side.

"Thanks dude…,"she breathed, and Kisame flashed her a cheeky grin.

"No problem, kiddo."

However, a quiet cry from Hidan caught their attention and they looked up to find the Jashinist lunging for them—apparently not happy that they'd stopped him from getting his kill. Kisame managed to block the man with his shoulder, but shoved Skylar away when Hidan made a jab at her again.

"Oof!" she said when she landed on something roughly, and she looked up to find Deidara staring down at her. She had managed to land in his lap—oh god—and—

Suddenly he grinned.

"No killing her, yeah!" he exclaimed, and Skylar then found herself flying out of the room, held strongly in Deidara's arms.

"Oh my god," she said in shock, somewhat embarrassed by the situation, and she looked up to the bomber. He was glacing down at her with his happy blue eyes, still grinning brightly as he carried her princess-style down the hallway.

"What are you-?"

"Go east," he told her as he came to a stop at the crossroads of the halls. Skylar suddenly became aware of the footsteps quickly coming up the hall after them, and judging by the way they were pounding—she could only guess that it was Hidan.

"What?"

"Go east," Deidara repeated casually. "We've got bases to the east and west of here—none to the south, and Ame is to the north. So…go east, yeah."

"Why-?"

"OI!" Suddenly out of the darkness Hidan came flying, and Deidara stepped out of the way just as Hidan impaled Skylar. The brunette awoke instantly on her couch, surprisingly feeling a little refreshed despite everything that had just gone on.

'_Go east.'_

Sighing, Skylar decided that she would trust Deidara, and picked herself up. She gathered her keys, got in her car, and headed east. On her way she stopped for lunch, and after eating and driving for about 40 minutes, she finally decided to stop at a playground/park on the side of the road. Reclining her chair, Skylar closed her eyes and prayed to god that Deidara wouldn't abandon her, and that she wouldn't end up someplace scary.

* * *

><p>Skylar woke up…in a bed. But it certainly wasn't hers.<p>

Sliding off the mattress, Skylar stared in shock at the room she was in. It was so bright and home-like. There were closets and dressers and a window that looked out towards a tiny village a little ways away.

Was…was this even an Akatsuki base?

Tentatively, Skylar exited the room and padded down the nice, clean, wooden hall. Eventually she came to a staircase, and slowly descended, almost scared to what she'd find at the bottom—

"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up, yeah!"

Blinking, Skylar nearly fell down the stairs in shock when she whipped her head around too quickly.

Deidara was sitting at a tiny kitchen table, Sasori sitting quietly across from him. Both were sipping on cups of tea, and both were also respectively working on their puppets/clay.

"Well…this place doesn't exactly seem like a typical Akatsuki base," she defended, puffing her cheeks out as she walked towards them.

"And that's exactly why it _is _a base," Sasori wisely commented, and Skylar rolled her eyes.

"So, now what? Are you just gonna send me back?"

"Well…not exactly, yeah," Deidara responded and stood from his seat, Sasori did the same, and both turned to face her.

"You guys are really scaring the shit outta me today…"

Deidara rolled his eyes. "We actually had to come out here for a tiny side-mission, yeah. We need more art supplies, but the guy we go to is an asshole about it—"

"Even to Akatsuki members?"

"Even to Akatsuki members," Sasori confirmed, frowning angrily, and Deidara continued.

"—except…he loves girls."

Skylar immediately deadpanned, glaring at the two.

"Are you saying the only reason you told me to go "east" was because you were gonna use me to get a discount on your art supplies?"

"To be fair, we were going to ask you to come with us anyway," Sasori stated, "it just happened to work out this way."

Skylar sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Alright, so…what do I have to do?"

"Just come with us, yeah," Deidara responded happily, and then brushed past her, heading out of the house. Skylar stared after him, tentative, but suddenly found herself moving after him thanks to some invisible force.

She immediately glared at Sasori. He just grinned.

"You _do _know how patient I am."

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled, and from behind her she heard Sasori chuckle quietly.

A minute later Skylar stepped outside the house into the bright day, and blinked at the sight before her. There was a giant white bird sitting in the middle of the grass, and Deidara was on top of it.

"C'mon, yeah!" he called with a giddy smile, and Skylar could help but laugh. It was funny how happy Deidara was at the moment—and it was mostly because he got to ride one of his creations and was going to get his beloved art supplies.

"Come on," Sasori's voice suddenly cut through her thoughts, and she looked up to find that he had already jumped onto the bird as well.

"I can't exactly jump that high," Skylar simply told him since she was definitely not a ninja with chakra to help her out, and Sasori sighed. With a flicked of his hand Skylar was suddenly flying through the air, doing a nearly impossibly flip onto the bird.

"Oh man," she said and stumbled back into Sasori once she had landed. He simply gripped her shoulders, steadying her and smirking at her confounded look.

"Never do that again."

"I make no promises."

Breathing a laugh, Skylar had no time to regain her bearings before the bird suddenly took off with a big swoop of its wings. Thankfully, Sasori hadn't yet released her so she managed to stay on her feet.

Quickly the bird ascended into the sky and flew away from the tiny village she had seen earlier. Instead they traveled further east, going up through the clouds and watching as the ground passed them below. At seeing the world shift below her, Skylar became entranced, not noticing that the two artists were staring at her, taking in her look of awe.

"This…is amazing," she said after a minute, bending down to sit on the birds white surface. Skylar tucked her legs into her chest and comfortingly wrapped her arms around them, resting her head on her knees as a peaceful smile overcame her face.

Sure, she'd ridden in airplanes before, and she'd seen sights standing atop a tall building, but nothing compared to this. The wind blowing through her hair and the green ground passing below her; she could see everything.

"Why do you think I choose to fly so much, yeah?" A quiet voice fondly put in from beside her, and Skylar blinked. Looking over, she found Deidara standing there, his cloak flapping gently in the wind. There was this wistful, understanding look on his face, and Skylar's smile naturally widened when she saw it.

"Well…I thought you just liked to show off," she responded jokingly, and a little ways away Sasori pointedly laughed. Deidara rolled his eyes and sent a playful glare at her.

Skylar just laughed, shrugging her shoulders.

"I mean, I'm not wrong, am I?"

"I suppose not, yeah," Deidara admitted after a minute, laughing quietly, and Skylar grinned. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sasori smirk as well.

After a 15 minute flight, Deidara took the bird down in a field outside a moderately sized town. Deidara hopped off first and caught Skylar when Sasori pushed her off the bird.

Hey—she'd been going too slow, alright? Plus, Deidara was there to catch her, so Sasori really didn't see the harm in a little roughness.

"Asshole," Skylar hissed at him once he had joined them on the ground, and Sasori didn't bother denying it.

Together, all three then walked into town. Sasori lead the way while Deidara and Skylar tailed behind him, and after a minute they approached a small, ordinary looking shop. They entered, and the old lady behind the counter bowed her head at them before she stepped aside, motioning to the door at the back of the shop. Deidara and Sasori nodded at her before continuing on, Skylar safely tucked between them as they went.

Once stepping through the door at the back of the shop, they seemingly entered a different building entirely. While the front of the shop was filled with normal, antique-like things, the back of the shop was…like a black market. Skylar couldn't even count the number of deadly weapons hanging on the walls and littered around on the floors and display cases.

"Well, well, I guess you two finally must've run out of supplies," a man spoke, and Skylar looked up to find a, well, not very good looking man at the counter in front of them. He was tall, but stout. His face wasn't too bad, but the air of arrogance around him was definitely a turn off in her book…

"So, what can I—"

The man paused, spotting Skylar standing between the two artists.

"Well," he started, his mood taking a total 180 as he attempted to flirt with her. He leaned onto the counter, licking his lips in a not-at-all appealing way.

Even Deidara and Sasori cringed.

"Who might this be?"

"A friend of ours," Sasori spoke immediately, glacing at Skylar out of the corner of his eye. "We saw each other in town, and she wanted to see where it was that we got our art supplies."

"She's always so taken with our work that she wanted to see the source, yeah," Deidara added in, and Skylar could tell that both of them were trying to butter the man up in hopes of getting a discount.

"Oh really? Well," the man suddenly winked at her, and Skylar felt his gut twist with disgust. "If you stick around, I can show you work even better than theirs, honey."

Skylar could feel the mood between the two Akatsuki members change immediately, for the man had just offhandedly insinuated that he could do something better than them.

"So, the supplies?" Sasori cut in, a cold edge to his voice, and the man seemed to snap out of his lustful trance a little.

"Oh, right…," shuffling away to the corner, the man grabbed two scrolls and quickly returned, placing them on the counter.

"How much, yeah?"

"Hmmm…500."

Deidara and Sasori didn't argue. In fact, thanks to Skylar's presence, he'd given them a tiny price cut.

After paying the man, Deidara took the two scrolls and shoved them into his hip pouch. Without saying anything, Sasori and Deidara then turned to leave, taking Skylar with them, but before the female could get too far a hand on her wrist pulled her back.

"Hey, honey, remember what I said earlier. If you want—"

The man's hand was suddenly smacked away, and Sasori's hand was on Skylar's waist, pulling her away from him.

"She's not interested," he coolly answered for her, and then spun, leading her towards the exit.

"Touch her again and I'll be sure to put the batch of C4 I just bought off you to good use, yeah," Deidara added in just for good measure, and then followed behind them.

"He'll probably never sell to you again after that," Skylar told them wisely as they traveled back through town, heading towards the spot where Deidara had left his bird.

"We have other sources," Sasori told her, as if losing one seller on their side was no big deal.

"Yeah, but—"

"Besides, he shouldn't have grabbed you like that, yeah," Deidara added in seriously, his eyes calmly ahead as they exited the town and padded towards the nearby field.

Taken off guard at that, Skylar wasn't sure how to respond, so…she didn't.

Had they actually been concerned for her a little bit?

"Come on," Sasori spoke once they had reached the bird, and instead of using his puppet strings to pull her up, Sasori instead jumped onto the bird and then reached down to help her. Skylar thanked him gratefully, and once all three were safely aboard, Deidara took to the skies once again.

A quiet, yet comfortable 15 minute ride later the clay bird landed outside their peaceful house-on-the-prairie-esque base, and all three departed the device. Deidara then returned the clay creation to its small form, packing it into his cloak for later use, and the two turned to face Skylar.

"Well, thanks, I guess," she said with a small laugh, unsure what to say, and the two smirked at her.

"Same to you," Sasori said, "and at least now we know that you can appear at other bases depending on where you are in your world."

"True," Skylar agreed, and noticed that Deidara had pulled a tiny butterfly creation from his pocket.

"So, is it finally your turn?" she joked, knowing that Deidara hadn't been one to kill her yet, and the blond laughed.

"Yep," he said, and then allowed the creature to flutter over to her. It landed on the side of her head, causing it to look like she was wearing some form of cute hair accessory. It was such an innocent looking image—a teenage girl standing in the middle of the long green grass, a butterfly resting on her head as she stared at it in wonder. And yet, at the same time, that image wouldn't last very long.

"Until next time," Skylar told them with a smile as Deidara held his fingers up.

"Until next time, yeah," he agreed, and then with a swift shout of "kai!" the butterfly exploded, and Skylar disappeared from where she'd been standing, only a tiny scorch mark left in her place. Deidara and Sasori stared at the scorch mark until a bird cawing overhead brought them back to reality, then they instead turned and went inside, thinking that another glass of tea would be beneficial to their turning minds.

* * *

><p><strong>Yo.<strong>

**I don't really have much to say. I just finished typing and re-reading (only once, so please go easy on me. I'll come back and fix things later if it's really that bad), and it's almost midnight, so I'm a little worn it. It was honestly a long week, and I don't feel like it's a Friday. Yesterday felt like a Tuesday, and I still feel like I should be going into school to work tomorrow.**

**Though, it's not like I don't have work because I have to revise another essay for AP Lit this weekend, and that'll honestly probably take up a lot of time, so that's why I'm trying to get this out now. **

**But, hey, it's a three day weekend thanks to the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, so I'll try and enjoy that a little bit. I've got haircuts tomorrow, and church stuff on Friday tho, so...hopefully I'm not all too stressed out. I'll work it out.**

**Anyway, that's all I've got to say for now. Once again, thanks for everything you guys do (read, review, etc). It's what keeps me going!  
><strong>

**Also, thanks to everyone who answered my new poll. It turns out that mostly everyone is straight, but a few of you are Asexual and Pansexual if I remember correctly. Cool. I would put my vote in too, but not yet lol. Still kind unsure about the label on my sexual preferences. I like dudes a lot-more than females by a long shot (in the "I wanna bang you" type way, because females are beautiful honestly)-but I mean...I'd do it with a female and be in a relationship with them if I really loved them a lot, so at the moment I'm in the Heteroflexible range. And I think that's where I'll stay lol.**

**Anyway, have a good night/day. I'll see you next time.**

**Please Review!**


	9. Chapter 8

**Normal POV**

Have you ever had one of those days where there's just _too much _shit to do? Because Skylar was currently having one of those days—and she was utterly exhausted.

She'd walked into school first hour, and had been told by her English teacher that they had a project due in two days. In second hour her business teacher informed them that they would be having a test tomorrow—which he _claimed _he had told them about a week ago—but everyone in the class had never heard a word.

Third hour was fine, because she had art and honestly nothing exciting ever happened. Though, during lunch they'd had a surprise fire drill which everyone had thought was real, therefore, running down stairs and away from the school spent up a lot of her energy.

Fourth hour…she didn't even know what happened because she'd had a headache from being pissed off at the kid who'd pulled the fire alarm. Man, her school was a piece of shit. And fifth hour she'd had a test to take—which she was nearly sure she failed because of her headache and exhaustion.

Now, finally, she was home, greeted by a cat who was yelling at her for food and a note from her dad saying that he loved her very much and "be safe". He had left that morning on another business trip after being home for only a week, but it'd been nice to see him for a little while. She did, however, enjoy her time alone.

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled when Atticus started glaring at her and she walked over and pulled a can of wet food out of the cupboard. After putting it in a small bowl for him she set it on the kitchen floor and then quickly retreated, getting out of his way.

Skylar then took note of her own whining stomach and grabbed a bag of wheat-thins from the counter. She dragged the box into the living room with her, and once on the couch with the TV remote in her hand, started to dig in. There was nothing good on at 3 in the afternoon, like usual, so Skylar ended up putting on an episode of Doctor Who she'd seen before and laying back to relax.

She was so worn out at the moment that Skylar had forgotten where she was lying. So, when she finally closed her eyes and with a quiet sigh relinquished her consciousness, she didn't expect to wake up where she did…

Sitting in a pile of lukewarm blood and a deranged-looking man towering over her.

* * *

><p>The Akatsuki, to say the least, weren't exactly comforted when they heard a terrified scream—especially because they only knew one person who sounded like that, and it was Skylar.<p>

Deidara and Itachi were lounging around the kitchen and living room when they heard the cry, and within a split second of sharing a worried glance with each other, the two were up and flying down the hall. As they ran, trying to pinpoint where she was, they head something that sounded like a muffled "holy shit!" and turned down one of the leftward halls, getting a sneaking feeling that they knew where Skylar was.

Hidan had gone into his secret room a little while ago, looking like he needed a murder fix since he'd been trapped in the base for a while without a mission, and they were scared that Skylar had landed back there with him.

"Skylar!" Deidara called when they reached the end of the hall, skidding to a stop in front of the locked door.

"Deidara!" came the muffled reply before there was a tiny scream and a loud banging noise.

Immediately the blond reached for the door knob, the blood in his veins on fire, but the door didn't budge.

"Fuck!" he cursed, banging his fist against the door, and Itachi reached forward, trying the knob as well.

"It's probably bolted from the inside," the Uchiha surmised, his brow furrowed with worry and his lips pulled into an annoyed from. Deidara, in return, cursed again and shoved his hands into the clay pouches at his hips.

Even if he had to blow up the damn door to get in there he would, he swore to g—

"Move," Kakuzu's voice suddenly rang out, and Itachi and Deidara turned to see the miser stomping down the hall towards them. He looked a little peeved, from what they could tell, and they barely had enough time to step out of the way before Kakuzu's hand hardened and shot out. It impaled the door, breaking right through the solid metal, and with one swift pull and grunt of strength, the door was off its hinges and on the ground.

Immediately the smell of blood and dead flesh hit the three, but they suffered through it and instead turned their attention inside. The first thing their eyes focused on was Hidan, absolutely caked in blood and a deranged look in his maroon eyes as he lifted his scythe above his head.

…then they focused on a smaller, much feebler looking form pushed into the wall before the Jashinist. It was Skylar—there were splotches of blood staining her clothes and face, and she looked positively _terrified._

"Ha!" Hidan grunted, swinging his scythe down with an insane grin, and Kakuzu shot his tendrils forward. The metal strands wrapped around the red and silver scythe and ripped the weapons from his hands. It clattered to the ground besides the door just as Hidan growled and glared back at them. However, without saying anything the Jashinist then reached down and grabbed a metal rod that had been lying on the ground, getting ready to strike at Skylar again.

"Oh no you don't!" Deidara intervened, and with a couple strides into the room the blond had tackled Hidan to the ground and away from Skylar. While Deidara immediately started punching Hidan in the face to try and snap him out of his blood lusting state, Itachi swiftly entered the room and knelt before Skylar. Her scared, wide, multi-colored eyes shifted up to him, and Itachi wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to say to her at the moment, so instead he gently pulled her towards him and picked her up in his arms. He then took her from the horrifying, bloody room and away from Deidara and Kakuzu as they attempted to restrain Hidan, and whisked her down the hall away from it all.

"Hey," he finally spoke as he knelt down and slowly placed her on the floor in front of him. Skylar looked at him, visibly calmer now that she wasn't in a room filled with so much death.

"Are you alright?"

"I…suppose," she granted after a moment, and shifted her eyes down to the floor, recalling everything that had just transpired.

_It was wet…usually she didn't feel wet when she ended up in their base. Well, unless, of course, she ended up in Ame—but that had only happened once before, and she was at home at the moment, so…_

_Wait a minute…_

_She placed her hand down and felt the puddle she was sitting in, becoming confused when it felt warm…also sticky…_

_Shit! Immediately the perverted side of her mind kicked in and she became flustered that maybe she was sitting in—!_

"_Hahaha…"_

_Skylar froze, turning her attention in front of her. On the other side of the barely lit room she could see a figure standing._

_She squinted her eyes, trying to see them better._

_Well, the guy—from what she could tell—was shirtless. He also had a muscular back, silver hair, and was…covered in…blood…_

"_Oh no," she breathed, fear coursing through her, and she looked down at herself. Her breath picking up, Skylar lifted her hands in front of her and started to shake when she saw the bright red liquid staining them. _

_It was blood…oh god, it was blood._

_And that must've meant that—_

"_Well, well," a deep voice spoke and footsteps echoed throughout the tiny room, splashing through the pools of fresh blood. Hidan appeared in the center of the single light illuminating the room and Skylar felt her eyes go wide and tears involuntarily appear. _

_He was absolutely _drenched in _blood. His chest and abs were bathed in it, his pants were stained, and there were even streaks on his face. _

_He looked like a mad man._

_He _was _a mad man._

"_Did you come to die?" Hidan continued with a deranged grin, tilting his head to the side creepily. Skylar felt her heart pound as she struggled to her feet, pushing herself up the wall and trying to find an escape route. Though, from what she could tell…there was none._

"_Well, I'd be more than glad to sacrifice you," Hidan said, taking a step towards her with his scythe dragging against the floor behind him, and Skylar did the only thing she could think of at the moment._

_She screamed._

"_Oh, they all do that!" Hidan laughed as if her terror was the funniest thing in the world, and Skylar jumped out of the way when he swung at her. Magically, she managed to dodge the blades and slid into a wall nearby, blood making her balance slippery._

"_Holy shit!" she screamed when she turned to find him swinging at her again, and she ducked under his blade when in impaled the wall right where her head had been. _

"_You're feisty!" Hidan groaned happily, licking his lips as he approached her again, and Skylar realized that she was trapped in a corner. _

_Her hope left, and Skylar slid down the wall, nearly cowering in fear as Hidan neared. He lifted his scythe above his head, smiling down at her like an insane psycho, and—_

"Skylar?"

_Bam! The door broke down. Kakuzu's tendrils flew into the room, grabbed Hidan's scythe, and then Deidara jumped in and tackled Hidan into the wall. Skylar caught a glance of Deidara's angry face as he punched Hidan only for a moment before Itachi was suddenly crouched in front of her, reaching out for her and—_

"Skylar?"

Skylar blinked out of her thoughts, looking up to Itachi who was still staring at her with genuine concern.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, of course," she assured him, shaking her head in an attempt to clear the recent memory from her brain. She sent him a small smile and Itachi returned it. However, before either of them could say anything more Deidara suddenly came walking up the hall towards them. His previously unstained clothes were now soaked with blood, but otherwise it seemed that he was unharmed.

"Hey, yeah," he said, and knelt down next to Skylar. His blue eyes were taking her in worriedly.

"He didn't hurt you, right?"

Skylar forced a smile at him.

"Somehow," she said with a laugh, and Deidara quietly sighed relief. Itachi stood nearby, watching the two and feeling relieved as well, however—

"You're both filthy," he exclaimed, and Skylar and Deidara immediately looked down at themselves. It was true—there was a lot of blood on them.

"Do you want to shower, yeah?" Deidara asked, looking up at her, and Skylar blinked.

"Like, together?" Skylar said jokingly, smirking slightly, and both Deidara and Itachi rolled their eyes. Deidara was, however, relieved to see that she wasn't utterly traumatized by everything she had just encountered.

"I mean, I won't stop you," Deidara responded just as playfully as he stood, offering her a hand. Skylar laughed and took it, allowing the blond to help her to her feet.

"You two go and get cleaned up," Itachi said, watching the two as they regained their bearings. "I'm going to go and help Kakuzu."

"Alright, yeah," Deidara said as Itachi turned and started to walk away. "Kakuzu decapitated Hidan though, so I'm not sure what you'll be able to help with."

"Wait, did he?" Skylar asked in surprise and Deidara turned the opposite way and started to lead her down a different hall.

"Well, yeah," Deidara said with a shrug. "I mean, after all, it's the easiest way to get him to stop doing something. A head without a body is powerless."

"I suppose that's true," Skylar granted, nodding her head, and then paused when she remembered something.

"Oh my god…," she breathed, placing her face her in her palms, and Deidara looked back at her, raising an eyebrow.

"What's up?"

"I just remembered something," she admitted sheepishly and when Deidara remained silent with questioning she continued.

"…if I'd gotten killed I would've just gone back to my world…"

Deidara's eyes went wide, as he remembered, too, that such a thing could happen.

"Well…," he spoke up after a minute. "I suppose that your scream kind of set us off, yeah."

"Sorry about that, by the way," Skylar replied as Deidara stopped them in front of a door, turning the knob to open it. "But Hidan was kind of scary…"

"I don't blame you," Deidara mumbled in response and then walked into the room, Skylar tentatively following after him. Inside the room was a moderately sized bed, a couple of dressers, and a work desk. On the work desk were a few closed packages, and a couple clay sculptures.

"Is this your room?" she asked, watching as he walked over to a door on the other side of the room, and Deidara nodded.

"Yep, and this is the bathroom," he said, opening the door he'd walked over to, and Skylar leaned forward so she could peek inside. There was a shower, sink and toilet inside. It looked like any typical bathroom, and was actually fairly clean.

"So, are you going in first or me?"

Deidara blinked innocently, tilting his head to the side.

"What? I thought we were getting in together, yeah?"

Skylar rolled her eyes at him, knowing that he was joking.

"Doesn't matter to me."

"Alright, you go first then, yeah," he said, stepping aside to let her go in. "You'll probably take longer anyway, since you're a girl."

"What the hell does that mean?" she responded as she walked inside. "Your hair is longer than mine!"

Deidara laughed and started to close the door to give her some privacy, but paused when he remembered something.

"Oh, by the way, yeah," he said and pointed a finger to the opposite end of the bathroom. There was another wooden door there. "Sasori and I share a bathroom, and he's supposed to come back sometime today, so you may wanna lock that door just in case."

"Oh, thanks," Skylar said honestly and Deidara nodded once before closing the door. Skylar then locked both doors, just for good measure, before getting undressed and starting up the shower. When she stepped into the warm water she'd never been more grateful that the shower had been invented. It was so soothing, yet somewhat perturbing watching all the dried blood on her wash down the drain.

The others must've seen a sight like this a lot, being in the profession that they were. But Skylar wasn't used to seeing so much blood. Even as a girl she'd never seen as much blood as she had today in that room…

Sighing, Skylar shook her head and stuck her face under the water, trying to forget about it all. After a minute, she paused and looked around for some shampoo, and was surprised when she saw a large bottle of both shampoo and conditioner sitting on a tiny shelf.

Well, then again, she laughed—Deidara had more luxurious hair than she did, so he probably needed it.

Smiling to herself, Skylar continued with her shower, quickly washing her hair and making sure to scrub all the blood off of her, and once she was satisfied she got out. She then started searching for a towel to dry with, and found a pile under the sink. However, after she'd finished drying off she realized that…she had no clothes to wear.

Her old ones were forever stained with blood. Hell, even her underwear had managed to get some blood on them too—and she wasn't trying to allude to a period joke or anything.

"Uhhh…," she said, trying to figure something out, and after a minute tentatively opened to door to Deidara's room, peeking her head out.

"Deidara?" she said, spotting him sitting on the bed reading a scroll. He was shirtless and only in his boxers, his bloodied clothes sitting at the end of his bed. However, at hearing Skylar call him he blinked and looked up.

"What's up, yeah?" he questioned, setting his reading material down.

"Uhh…," she said, her cheeks starting to turn pink with embarrassment, and that was when Deidara realized the bareness of her shoulder and collar bone, and how she wasn't coming out of the bathroom. Grinning, Deidara shook his head lightly and then scooted off his bed, heading over to one of the dressers against the wall. He pulled open one drawer and grabbed a shirt before pulling open the next one down and grabbing a pair of sweatpants.

"Come get them," he then exclaimed, grinning happily when she saw her face flush red and cheeks puff out.

"Oh, haha, asshole," she said, glaring at him. Her arm emerged from around the door, and she motioned for him to come forward. "Now please bring them to me."

Snickering, Deidara did some and once he was in arms distance from her, held the clothes out. She thanked him, grabbing them from his hands, and then quickly retreated back behind the bathroom door. A minute later she emerged wearing one of his half-mesh shirts and a pair of sweats that were clearly a little too long for her.

"What do you want me to do with my bloody clothes?" Skylar said, motioning back to the pile she'd left on the bathroom floor.

"Oh just leave them there, yeah," Deidara said, waving his hand nonchalantly has he bent over to grab his dirty clothes as well. "I'll keep all of the bloodied shit in there so it doesn't stain anything. Then I'll probably burn it later, hmm…"

"Burn it?"

Deidara shrugged, smirking slightly as he brushed past her into the bathroom.

"I feel like you forget how often we likely have to burn up bloodied clothes and other evidence, yeah."

"Ah," Skylar responded and glanced over her shoulder at him. "I suppose your right."

Deidara humorously rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, I'm getting in, yeah. You're free to leave if you want, or stay. Though, I can't guarantee I won't walk out naked, yeah."

Skylar laughed. "Is that supposed to scare me away or get me to stay and wait with anticipation?"

Deidara laughed as well, waggling his eyebrows at her deviantly before he slowly closed the bathroom door while saying, "that's up to you, love."

Even once the door was closed, Skylar could hear his snickering from the other side and she could help but muffle her own laughter as well. For some reason, she wanted to see Deidara's face if she decided to stay and wait for him to exit—because he'd likely be shocked as hell. However, Skylar knew that if she did such a thing then things would get awkward and also—maybe—sexual. After all, she was 17, he was—hell, probably only 18 at this point, though she wasn't sure because she didn't know how far into the story line they were at the moment—but…you know…two teenagers together and one being naked never really ended safely.

In fact, if she was in the same situation with Sasori or Itachi too, she felt that things had the potential to get sexual. Not to say that she wanted to bang Deidara, Sasori and/or Itachi but-! Well…you know…they were her favorites—and usually if you got a chance you took that chance, but…

Fuck.

Skylar snapped out of her internal ramblings and bent down, rolling up the ends of Deidara's sweats so she wouldn't be stepping on them as she walked.

She also had to remember, however, that the people she was hanging out with were criminals and she would never actually be able to have a relationship with them. And besides that—at the moment she was just being a desperate teenager. She'd been boyfriend-less for a good two years now after she'd realized that the relationship she'd been in throughout ninth grade had been pointedly meaningless and wouldn't last forever. Nowadays she was holding out for something serious, and she knew that none of the Akatsuki would be able to give her that.

Though, at the same time that didn't mean that she had to stop thinking they were all nice looking—because they were, and she wouldn't deny it. Kishimoto had designed his characters to be pretty handsome/beautiful.

Sighing, Skylar shook her head of any remaining romantic thoughts and headed towards the door. She then pulled it open and exited the room, stepping into the dank hall. The base was silent save a few muffled faraway sounds, so she tentatively made her way up the corridor.

She had to admit that she was still a little freaked out by everything that had happened, and she really didn't want to run into Hidan again before she made it to the living r—

"Oof!"

While turning the corner Skylar ran into something, and fell back. However, before her butt could hit the ground a hand suddenly wrapped around her back, and she found herself pulled flush against the soft fabric lining somebody's chest.

"Sorry—are you alright?"

'Why do I have to be attracted to fictional characters?' she thought, recognizing Sasori's raspy voice, and looked up to find him glancing down at her with two eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she responded after a couple seconds, his grip on her loosening, and she took a small step back away from him. Sasori nodded in relief and then paused when he realized what she was wearing. However…he didn't know what to say.

Skylar took notice of his silence and where he was looking, and immediately became flustered.

"Oh, it's not what you're thinking!" she said, and Sasori blinked, looking up to her with an eyebrow raised skeptically.

"No?"

Sighing, Skylar ran a hand through her damp hair and started to explain. She went through how she'd landed in Hidan's private room in the middle of him, well, likely decapitating someone, and how she'd nearly been slaughtered by him, but had been rescued by Deidara, Itachi and Kakuzu. She then explained that Deidara had let them use their shower to clean up, and had lent her some clothes to wear since her old ones were completely ruined.

"You're right," Sasori granted when she was done explaining. "That wasn't what I was thinking at all. Though…that would explain why Hidan was in the living room having his head sewn back on…"

Skylar snorted a laugh.

"Yeah…"

"So, are you alright?"

"What?" she said, a little surprised, and then waved her hand. "Oh yeah, I'm fine by now. Though, to be honest I'm ready to head home soon."

"Alright," Sasori nodded in understanding, and then instinctively started to unbutton his cloak.

"Thanks," Skylar said when the cord in his stomach began to uncoil, and Sasori dipped his head at her.

"See you next time," he said, and had just enough time to see Skylar's lips stretch into a smile before his metal cord impaled her, and she was gone.

After she had disappeared, Sasori put himself back together and then continued on his way down the hall. When he reached his room he stepped inside, shrugged off his cloak, put a normal shirt on, and then knocked on the bathroom door. When there was no response, he pulled open the now unlocked door and stepped inside.

The bathroom was still slightly steamy from the recently used shower, and Sasori paused to stare at the pile of bloody clothes on the floor before stepping over them and entering Deidara's room. He knocked on the doorframe to alert the blond that he was there, and, surprised, Deidara paused in styling his long hair to look at his partner.

"Welcome back, yeah," he said simply before for continuing with what he'd been doing. Sasori said nothing for a moment, simply staring at him. Then—

"You like her."

Deidara snorted.

"So do you, yeah. In fact, Itachi, Kisame, and Konan like her a lot too."

When Sasori didn't respond, Deidara glanced over his shoulder, and when he saw Sasori's narrowed glare, he rolled his eyes.

"Listen, just because we're only a year apart in age doesn't mean I want to get her in bed, hmm. Don't go assuming things."

This time, Sasori rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as well as he leaned back against the bathroom doorframe.

"You try and lay any girl you come across, brat."

"Because I like women," the blond responded innocently. "And you like them too, Danna."

"I'm a puppet."

"You're _alive_."

For once, Sasori didn't respond, and Deidara knew that he had won the battle—because he knew Sasori, even if they'd only been partners for a year or so. He always claimed that he was a puppet without any emotions or needs, but Deidara could tell that he was half-bluffing. Becoming a puppet had solidified his emotions and made him void of love for his family and certain other things, but he still had emotions.

He got angry at Deidara for disagreeing with his opinion of art, smirked when something amusing happened, and sometimes even laughed if he happened to see something funny.

Sasori had objects that he liked—and Deidara could tell now that—after she'd been showing up for over a month—Skylar was one of those things.

So yes, they all—or most of them, at least—liked Skylar. In fact, they liked her even more than they'd expected to originally…and they weren't sure if that was a good thing or not.

* * *

><p><strong>Yo. <strong>

**What goes on? It's currently about 3PM on Sunday, where I am at the moment, and I'm kind of sad that tomorrow's Monday. I had a project for Jane Eyre to do this weekend for AP Lit, and I _think _that I'm done. Think being the key word. My partner, Jacob, still has to do his half of the powerpoint, so once he does that I'm pretty sure we'll be done. I also have to write a paper for Japanese because it's an IB class, so I have to write a paper for the IA. **

**Ugh.**

**I also was recently assigned a project in AP Psychology, so I need to go to Jo-Ann Fabrics later to get some supplies. I'll probably get dressed and leave once I'm done with this...**

**When people tell you senior year is easy sailing it's all bullshit-don't believe a word they're telling you.**

**Also, don't know if I mentioned it, but I recently decided that I'm going to dorm next year instead of commuting. You know, I figured I'd try dorming out and try to make some friends. Then I won't have to leave an hour before class everyday to try and get there on time.**

**And...Idk what else to say. Everything in my life is pretty school oriented at the moment...**

**Oh! Thursday night is the opening night for our school musical! And since I'm the 'House Manager' aka the person who's in charge of getting people to their seats and making sure everything off-stage is going fine, I have to be there all four nights. Meaning that I probably won't have too much time to write next weekend. Especially because I'll still likely be doing my Psychology project and some other shit for AP Lit because she never gives us a break in that class.**

**Well, I guess I'll stop ranting now. A lot of you took my poll, so thanks! Also, a lot of you have started to speculate pairings and stuff like that...but I refuse to give anything away, so HA.**

**Love you, see you next time ;P**

**Please Review!**


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